What about forming an Art (fiction/historical) Book Club this winter?

This past week I took a break from my studio and my art practice. I needed it, after months of preparing for the Open Studio weekends and the intensity of the double weekends themselves.
It fell in line with the new moon so there was a restful darkness in the evenings. I grabbed a stack of fiction novels and settled into the arm chair travels that a comfy chaise, a throw blanket, and a good book will allow.
I read 3 books, one after the other, each thoughtful, provoking, and enticing. The first, Peel My Love Like an Onion, by Ana Castillo, took a dancer’s perspective on perfecting her craft despite her physical handicap and her family’s disdain. She reaches stardom under the wings of a mentor/lover, falls for a rival in her field and eventually loses her ability to dance. The story is told in the form of recalling memories, broken up as she faces advancing age and economic poverty. Tapping into my worst fears briefly before…well- I can’t ruin the end for you!
The second book was Spending by Mary Gordon and the main protagonist is a female artist who, at an art opening and presentation of a new show of her figurative paintings, in Provincetown MA, despairs over the advantage male artists have in their luxury of a muse, who is housewife, patron, lover, etc. “Where are the Muses for a woman artist?”, she asks, and then he stands up in the audience and says, “I am here”. It’s a rollicking sexy story that embraces repercussions to the question: what would happen to your art if nothing stood in the way and all your ideal conditions are met? Is your art as important as you believe it to be? There is a lot more in the story and, believe me, it was like a box of chocolate to enjoy.
The third book was called Shadow Tag, by Louise Erdrich, and it was more gripping and intense with a violence below the surface. I read it in one day, unable and uneasy with the idea of putting it down. The protagonists changed between an artist-husband who is obsessed with and has made his career painting his wife, the wife who feels her identity has been stolen from her and starts playing mind-games with a planted diary for her husband, and their middle child who observes the two parents and is driven to develop skills to survive the darkly fragile and fraught domestic landscape.

This week I was invited to join an artist book club, and the idea intrigued me, but the books were all books I had read before, and they were motivational, how-to, genre. It seemed too much like work! I want to fly into another world! Less homework and more dreamwork.

Would anybody be interested in an art historical fiction or just plain art fiction book club? I enjoyed the perspective the fictional artists brought, with certain parts feeling more relatable than others. I would be curious to hear what strikes someone else as interesting, relatable, or jarring.

Here are three books I have not read yet- but would throw out as a place to start. Let me know if you are interested in reading them with me!
Muse: Uncovering the Hidden Figures Behind Art History’s Masterpieces by Ruth Millington (2022)
Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists by Donna Seaman (2017) which I HAVE read, but would read again.
The Mirror and the Palette by Jennifer Higgie (2021).

Look them up and let me know!