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Published on Visualizing Ecology (http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecofall)

Chelsea Howe

As I respect what Hannah Hinchman has created as an expressive and a succeeding tutor to her life by compiling journals, I found that many aspects of her book/ journal, A Trail Through Leaves,  could have been left unpublished.  I took use in her many ideas of how to use different "tools" to help evolve a better artist, or nature-guided and inspired teacher by the means of interacting art and the many colors you can find within a twelve color watercolor set, and I found them very relevant.  In all her relevance, I did find much personal content, that focused more on the taste that makes her tongue tingle, irrelevant to the interested reader.  I was reading along, picking up and pondering  Hinchman's ideas, when a particular sentence threw me off for a minute.  Besides permitting the reader to be warped into her , the meaning seemed to e pretty shallow and lacked a deep purpose when I read,  "I like the Bic better than the heavy, pretentious Mont Blanc ballpoint pen that my friend found in the street, in a little pouch (31)."   I think that if this book is intended to help students acheive a level of most satifaction with their work, she should focus a little more on finding the right things for yourself. By the way she writes, by using writing devices such as insisent "I's" it leaves the reader to think that they are reading more about this woman and her fancies, rather than what can be done to help them find the right techniques and doings for themselves.  So, i liked the book and I did gain from it, so I thank Hannah and the publishers, but at the same time I felt a little neglected as a reader.  It is possible to look at it that the book was created with other aims.

Cody Cohan › [0]

Source URL:
http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecofall/visecofall/chelsea-howe-2