Book excerpt: Modern Fresco Paintings is the first collection of Ali Cavanaugh's paintings, andit follows her entire career using watercolor on kaolin clay to create hermodern fresco technique and the lovely work that flows from it. Beginning withher hyper-realistic portraits and ending with her latest, more free-flowingpictures, her use of light, color, and the human form captures the essence ofher models and their forms and feelings in a particular moment. Cavanaugh's artistic sensibilitywas developed by two important events in her childhood. Her dependence on the visualworld began when she lost much of her hearing through spinal meningitis whenshe was two, and her creative spirit developed out of her being raised in a ruralenvironment where she had to create her own ways of expressing herself and makingher own fun. She developed her stunningmodern fresco medium almost by accident as she was learning to apply the outerlayer of plaster to her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Since that time thisvolume illustrates her growth as an artist and her mastery of the technique. These are lovely works, paintedmasterfully. Both long-time followers of Cavanaugh's work---from the earliest "SockArms" paintings to those who found her through more recent work like the Chroma series---and those who are discoveringher and her art for the first time, will be delighted by this collection.