Book excerpt: Internationally known artist Howard McConeghey argues that perception is the very essence of life and making art is our most elegant and accessible expression of it. Freeing us from the paralysis of traditional art "training," he breaks the chains of modernism and its constrictive "eye," allowing anyone -be they an artist, an art therapist, or simply a soul-searcher -to find beauty and create it.McConeghey builds a psychological case for art as a universal healer. Working against the onslaught of modern-day skepticism, technology, and rationalism, art may be one of our last avenues to finding soul. And reaching for the images and archetypes that each of us can see in our mind's is the first step. Lushly illustrating his book with reproductions of paintings and drawings from art history's classics to those in art therapy, McConeghey does what only a great master can do: he delivers complex material on a silver platter, making it a pleasure to read and a joy to experience.