Reading Art Book Club July 14, 2010

The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland

PLEASE NOTE:
Our July meeting will take place at the Branigan Cultural Center

Susan Vreeland's third novel (after "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" and "The Passion of Artemisia") again brings to light a prominent female artist, this time modern Canadian painter Emily Carr. As imagined here by Vreeland, Carr struggles against turn-of-the-century Victorian codes that dictated both how a lady should act and how art should rendered and evaluated. In embracing the rapidly disappearing indigenous cultures of British Columbia, Carr created bold, Impressionist paintings that horrified the public as much as those of her male French counterparts. It was only belatedly (though still in her lifetime) that her art was embraced. In this richly imagined telling of Carr's life, Vreeland creates a fascinating cast of characters, from the indigenous people Carr befriends to her own sisters who cannot understand her passions or her paintings.

Please join us even if you haven't read the monthly book selection.