Book Summary

Mythic Adventures is a colorful adventure for mothers and daughters, and all those who dare to dream and create together. A selection of Gwen Cates fine art collections is featured in the book including landscapes, figure studies, abstract paintings, and mythical creatures. Her daughter, Ayn Cates Sullivan, is the author of over twenty books, and has won over sixty literary awards. She offers accompanying poems. Family stories are included that give relevance to the artist’s life and international career. Gwen and Ayn have teamed up to make a colorful book that can be read at leisure. This is a fine art book to keep and treasure.

Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite

“An artist lives in the moment, Looks at all the colors in the sky, The patterns within each leaf.” What is an artist? Someone who creates passionate images and structures for others to see and admire? An artist is definitely someone who creates, but it can be more than just visual creativity. In that definition, an artist can be a poet or a composer, for they create, too. In Gwen Cates and Ayn Cates Sullivan’s book, Mythic Adventures, the fine arts of painting and poetry are brought together. A mother/ daughter team, one a painter, the other a poet, combine their efforts to create another work of art: “Then we both enter the wisdom field,” for it is in the art of creativity that true wisdom is found and beauty, subtle and serene, can be shared.

Gwen Cates and Ayn Cates Sullivan’s book, Mythic Adventures: Paintings and Poetry, is a treasure to be enjoyed frequently. The artist, Gwen Cates, has a passion for figure and landscape painting, and her divine images, especially the cover image, make her audience think of Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel. She also paints mythical creatures, bringing her imagination to life. Her daughter, Ayn Cates Sullivan, is a highly acclaimed author and poet, and her poetry complements her mother’s artwork. Her poems use a variety of creative styles, from traditional stanzas to free verse. The two artists share family stories, making this presentation a visual memoir. This mother-daughter team is challenging others to share their artistic talents, for “Blessed are those who seek wholeness/ For they shall know Wisdom.” Creativity is wisdom. This is a beautiful treasure of a book.

Review by Bruce Harding, JM Northern Media

Mother and daughter collaborate on this coffee table collection, weaving Ayn’s poetry around the paintings of artist Gwen. The result is a visually stunning and introspective book that’s a perfect gift for the spiritual person in your life. The interplay of color and words grew out of a desire by Ayn Cates Sullivan to create a book dedicated to her mother’s art. Inspired by those visual works, she began writing poems that matched the art, and soon realized that they were co-creating a book. Renewal is a theme of the work, as both contributors were battling through life situations during its creation. The strength of those efforts is reflected in the work. Sullivan said of that time, “We painted, wrote poetry, told stories and healed together.”

The book ends with a tribute by Gwen Cates’s younger brother, Franklin Foster, who writes of his experience with Gwen, and Ayn’s own salute to her mother’s work. This uplifting book is designed to be slowly savored by anyone with a spiritual side. Drink in the images, reflect on its accompanying words, and enter a mythic adventure that will inspire the reader to be centered and calm in the midst of life’s chaos.