This book was originally intended to accompany the Dante - Inferno - Hell series of paintings and artworks by Maia Newley but it is published here as a stand-alone book and has added new information. Alongside full-color images of the artwork, it also contains a biography of the artist, Maia Newley, and a preface which introduces the reader to Dante's Divine Comedy and Dante Alighieri the man as well as including a brief overview of how the series of paintings came into being and a little about the works themselves. For any fan of Maia Newley's work, this book is a must!
About the Author: Maia Newley is an abstract expressionist artist who lives between the USA and the UK. Her work focusses predominantly on colors, textures and emotions and the interplay between all three. Her previous series have included "Dante - Inferno - Hell" and "Faustus - Denouement - The Conclusion" which both explore the relationship between mankind, evil, eternality and man's belief in the supernatural. She has exhibited in the USA, UK and Europe and is committed to producing 'accessible art' which is shown in appropriately accessible environments. She has regularly shunned opportunities of exhibiting in conventional galleries in favor of open-air, freely-accessible exhibitions and open-space galleries which offer full access to visitors with no entrance fee. She strongly believes that art belongs to everyone and should not be viewed any differently to music (which she also composes) - everyone should have free access to art if they wish to view it. She views her work as coming from an anarchistic start point and, for this reason, she endeavors to ensure her work is available and viewable to anyone who wishes to see it, regardless of income, status or education. As Maia herself says: "... There are some galleries I have exhibited in in the past, where even I, as the artist, feel uncomfortable going in the door - as though I am entering some hallowed hall where I can only walk in if I am wearing the right outfit and only speak in whispers using words of more than three syllables. Goodness alone knows how the casual passer-by might feel on seeing the work through the window and wishing to pop in to view it in more detail. I do not want my art work displayed in such a place. Life is art and art is life, and therefore is it imperative that we do not separate the two or put one on a pedestal above the other." Although Maia works predominantly as an expressionist, she also has occasional forays into the areas of symbolism and fauvism. Over the years she has worked with a plethora of different media including sculpture, stone casting, metalwork, pyrography, stained glass window design and more conventional painting. She is also a photographer. Maia also runs an independent film production company which produces mainly biographical documentary feature films.