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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 747.2972
EAN: 9780811818933
ISBN: 0811818934
Label: Chronicle Books
Manufacturer: Chronicle Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 176
Publication Date: September 01, 1998
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Studio: Chronicle Books
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Basking in sunlight and coursing with energy, Mexico enjoys a unique relationship with color-inspired, intrinsic, inseparable from life itself. This vibrance sings forth in the pages of Mexicolor, the collaborative project of an artist, a photographer, and a writer all in love with the brilliant displays of color seen everywhere in Mexico. Walls washed flamingo pink on top, deep matte blue on the bottom. A green flatbed truck heaped with orange marigolds. A sea of colorful skeletons at a Day of the Dead fiesta. The radiant reds, yellows, purples, and greens of the fruits and vegetables at el mercado. Mexicolor explores Mexico high and low, from colonial towns to dazzling beaches, from traditional workshops to contemporary interiors, from open markets to extraordinary homes and inns, uncovering the colorful artistry that permeates everyday life across this vast nation. Mexicolor is an ideal resource for anyone looking to brighten a home, and a beautiful picture book brimming with imagination, creative ideas, and pure pleasure.
Amazon.com Review:
Radiant color is not merely joyously prevalent in Mexico, it is part of the national psyche. According to this energetic celebration of Mexican style, "the color that floods Mexico's streets and plazas, markets and homes (and the pages of this book) is language and metaphor--a form of communication, deeply bound to experience. Day and night, birth and death, rich and poor, feast and famine: color is always there. Earth, sky, and history conspire to make it so." The profusion of multihued walls, tiles, ceramics, textiles, and folk art that fill the home; the riotous juxtapositions of vivid foods, flowers, supplies, and accessories that comprise the spectacle of the marketplace; the vibrant details that define everything from facades to clothing to handpainted toys--the Mexican obsession with color is everywhere, as is strikingly documented in this lively book. --Amy Handy
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
This is a beautiful book, full of vibrant colors and design ideas. I'm going to paint my house inside and out, and re-do my patio based on some of the gorgeous photos in here. If you love COLOR, this book is a treasure!
Rating:  -
You will find yourself dreaming of new colors for your walls or of a new fountain for your patio.
I must mention all twenty-one chapters to explain how much this book covers:
1.) The Painted Wall; 2.) Tiles; 3.) La Cocina [The Kitchen]; 4.) Casa Quinta Quebrada; 5.) Textiles; 6.) Folk Art, Toys & Skeletons; 7.) Ceramics; 8.) Four Artists' Homes; 9.) Casa de la Torre; 10.) El Mercado [The Market]; 11.) Wood; 12.) Metal; 13.) Contemporary Architecture; 14.) Niches & Shelves; 15.) Charming Inns and Hotels; 16.) Two Bed-and-Breakfasts; 17.) A Renovated Hacienda; 18.) Patios & Fountains; 19.) Living Outdoors; 20.) A Tropical Folly; and 21.) La Costa [The Coast]
Each chapter is not much of a read, one page describing the subject; but I should say that Mexicolor is not a book that should be bought for reading. It is a book of VISUAL INSPIRATION.
The second chapter: TILES shows how these hand-painted beauties are used in fountains, in the framing of windows, on countertops (surrounding talavera sinks), and even on benches. After this chapter alone, I began dreaming of renovating my bathrooms... and one is now complete.
My one disappointment with Mexicolor: The Spirit of Mexican Design, is that the book is not well bound. It proudly sat on my coffee table for months until the pages were barely 'hanging on.' It now sits safely in a bookshelf for visual reference.
The photos make this worth the price.
This book will make you want to bring more color into your life... TO DREAM IN COLOR!
Rating: -
If you love the vibrancy of color and folkloric touches of decoration typically found in Mexico, this is the book. Combining photos and text, it walks you through a stunning array of ideas. Generically, these start out with chapters on painted walls, tiles, textiles, ceramics, wood, and metal. But it then builds by degrees into completed projects so that you can see all these elements blended together--from small niches and shelves, on to kitchens and patios with fountains, and finally on up to homes, hotels, and haciendas in their glorious whole. Collectibles abound: masks, skeletons, Talavera and Oaxacan pottery, paper mache art, baskets, copper cookware--you name it. The book is a visual feast, and what I loved about it is that if you are attracted to this style it gives you a starting point, large or small, that seems immediately attainable with reasonable cost and effort. I used many of their ideas in decorating my new home, and the warmth and earthiness of the results please me greatly. I would buy the book all over again, just to have the photos transport me to other places that I would also like to be. It really is a meal for the senses . . .
Rating: -
A really beautiful book. One of the best I have seen. I live in Mexico and will be using many ideas.
Rating: -
While I was in the process of planning and building my next casa in Baja, this book provided mucho inspiration. The Spanish Colonial, and Hacienda designs, the avalanche of colors and gardens provided me the basis of making mi casa as Mexico as I could.
Yes, the binding is weak, but the book remains as an Essential. I now have 2 copies, one very worn out copy.
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