Many of my favorite books come with a backstory. They’re the ones I find unexpectedly, often a by-product of quickly checking out an unknown bookstore in the midst of an outing or a trip.

La Puerta Negra     ©2016 Elizabeth Fram

A couple of weeks ago, on a jaunt up to the Vermont Studio Center to see Joseph Salerno’s paintings, (which, by the way, were fabulous), I had the chance to pop into Ebenezer Books and found a treasure — not only for its contents, but also because it now holds the memory of that afternoon with friends.

Paul Madonna’s thick compilation Everything Is Its Own Reward first caught my eye because of the sketches; line drawings with ink washes – mostly monochromatic. I bought it figuring it would be pleasure-read and textbook rolled into one. Containing page after page of lonely streetscapes without people and only occasional cars, it honors the raw beauty of value, pattern, and composition, offering an intimate conversation with a sense of place. The fact that most of the images are from spots in and around San Francisco, easily my favorite of our many residences before settling in VT, sweetened the pot.

Succulent     ©2016 Elizabeth Fram

Madonna includes snippets of handwritten text: part journal, part fiction, part esoteric poetry. It’s a book that I sense will read differently each time I pick it up, depending on mood and circumstance. Seemingly a volume of mostly images, with limited and at times cryptic text, it was a very happy surprise to find he had written an enlightening afterword, a reward in itself, revealing the backstory of these works and his philosophy about being an artist.

Orchids     ©2016 Elizabeth Fram

His gem-like musings on seeking to create work with meaning that would be appreciated in a world where “to create art was to walk up (a) mountain (of everything-ever-made) and add a small cup of dirt while an endless procession of dump trucks poured other artists’ dirt onto the mountain as well”, are humble thoughts that I am convinced sneak into all our minds at one time or another. He sums it up in this way:

“So I continue to try. To do more than try. To give everything I have, because if I don’t, what is the point? There is no point. I do it for the sake of doing. I get out only what I put in. Everything being, its own reward.”

Wow. Maximum inspiration within 220+ pages.

❖

Additional notes: Everything Is Its Own Reward is Paul Madonna’s 2nd book. His weekly strip in the San Francisco Chronicle generated All Over Coffee, his first.

And speaking of “strips”, I highly recommend the documentary Very Semi-Serious that delves into the cartoon department at the New Yorker magazine, and many of the artists who have contributed to its iconic genius. I think you’ll get a kick out of it.