I’m reading The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova for the From Left to Write Book* club. Its a rather long book so its taking me a while to get through it but I am enjoying it. Its a mystery, which I love, about a psychiatrist who’s trying to find out why his deliberately silent patient attacked a painting at the National Gallery in Washington DC. So far, art is a major theme in this book and every time I pick it up I think about my own experiences with art. I’m not much of an artist by any means but long ago and far away I had a love for working with pastels and studying the Impressionists. I think it began the summer after seventh grade when I attended a summer camp focused on writing and painting. We took a field trip to the National Gallery and that’s where I first set my eyes on the works of Monet, Degas and Renoir – Monet, not to be confused with Manet, was my favorite. I spent the rest of my summer sketching in pastel and writing poetry inspired by their works. There’s a … [Read more...]