Mary Engelbreit

The Art and the Artist

By Patrick Regan with Mary Engelbreit
Andrews and McMeel, $29.95

ISBN 0836222326

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It's a gift book. It's a business book. It's both!

Only rarely can a book please two very different audiences. Our pick for chameleon of the year: Mary Engelbreit: The Art and The Artist by Patrick Regan with Mary Engelbreit.

Our gift-book lovin' editor writes:

Their T shirts say it all: "Say it loud! We're Cute and We're Proud!" The staffers working at Mary Engelbreit's offices know that their wildly popular artist boss has cornered the market on sweetness -- at this point there's a movement afoot, a militant happiness that promises to creep into even the most dour person's heart. The St. Louis artist's gentle, colorful art has spawned a wealth of greeting cards, ornaments, home decorations, posters, and books.

Some people doubt that Engelbreit is a real person. (Did some greeting card company invent her, a Betty Crocker of graphic design?) Now, we meet the very real woman behind the smiling young girl in Mary Engelbreit: The Art and the Artist. Full of the color and detail that distinguish the artist's work, this book is a showcase of her favorite pieces, some never before seen.

There's a little Maxfield Parrish in Engelbreit's work, some Joan Walsh Anglund, and a big dose of moppets in middy dresses. It's all beautifully rendered, clearly the work of a woman who has spent years perfecting her style. And the many early drawings included here show just how that style evolved -- a good primer for the budding artist.

"We're here! We're cute! Get used to it!"

- - Ann Shayne

Our no-nonsense business columnist writes:

Mary Engelbreit has a well-known, commercial style, which everyone can visualize who remembers her most famous 1976 (redone in 1979 and 1983) illustration captioned "Life is just of chair of bowlies." Mary Engelbreit: The Art and the Artist claims to be the "largest, most extensive collection of Mary Engelbreit's work ever published." But that's not reason to buy it unless you like her incredibly cutesy greeting-card style.

Or unless you want to know how to harness your own talent into a product orientation. The biographical sketch accompanying all this full-color art reproductions confirms that successes such as Engelbreit's don't just happen. It also confirms that talent takes a back seat to other qualities, such as determination, when you set out to conquer the world with your art.

You don't have to love the art of Mary Engelbreit, or Howard Stern, or Rush Limbaugh, to realize how much they know about being themselves. And how well they use that knowledge. You don't have to have artistic aspirations, either, to learn from entrepreneurs who make themselves their main product. Many people look to biographies for personal inspiration, and this one, though it can be cloying at times, has the necessary perceptiveness. If you've enjoyed Mary Engelbreit in the past, now you can learn about and from her. If her art is not your cup of tea, there is still plenty to absorb here, about how to go about discovering yourself.

-- Michael Pellecchia

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