It’s been a while since I wrote a post on the Dreaming Sophia Art History Blog site. The first reason why I’ve been a little absent from this site is that for most of the summer of 2018 I was traveling in Italy. I spent the entire months of June and September, first in Montepulciano and then in Arezzo with my Italian language groups.
The second reason? When I wasn’t in Italy, I’ve been hard at work coming up with the storyline, researching and writing my next novel set in Italy — Eternally Artemisia. I’m in the final stages of polishing and almost done with editing and rewriting (hopefully! the refining never ends—but I’m almost there!)
Like my first two novels, Dreaming Sophia and Waking Isabella, this new novel is about a woman who is on a journey of self-discovery to find love and uncover hidden truths as she makes a new life for herself in Italy. All three novels create a trilogy of stories that celebrate art and creativity.
Specifically, in the pages of Eternally Artemisia I explore the idea that art is timeless, as I write about the life of Artemisia Gentileschi, who was the first documented female artist of note who painted during the seventeenth century and was a follower of Caravaggio.
As in all of my novels, I express the idea that if you are open to the concept, art can talk to you. It is something accessible and joyous, and because of this, its creators live on through the centuries continuing to inspire and delight us. And in this third novel, like the first two, I mix in a bit of fantasy and dreaming, creating worlds in which my protagonists meet and mix with historical figures through imaginative conversations and paintings that come to life.
So, I found it particularly fascinating the other day when I came across this little video in which a group of actors have recreated and animated the paintings of Caravaggio on stage. It seemed something out of the pages of my novels and I wanted to share it with you!
For the long version of this theatrical performance click here
There will be lots more to come about my new novel Eternally Artemisia in the following weeks. Publication date is forecasted for December 2018 or January 2019. For more information about all my books, visit my author website:
Waking Isabella – Available on Amazon
(Soon to be released in Italian)
Dreaming Sophia – Available on Amazon
(Soon to be released in Italian & Spanish)
Synopsis of
Eternally Artemisia — some loves, like some women, are timeless
They say some loves travel through time and are destined to meet over and over again. In the pages of Eternally Artemisia Maddie, an Art Therapist, leading Women’s retreats in Tuscany, wrestles with the “peculiar feeling” that she has lived previous lives and is being called to Italy by voices from the past that have left their footprints on her soul. Following Maddie’s journey to find her kindred spirits, readers will travel back to sixteenth-century Florence in a time when artists brandished a paintbrush as easily as a dagger. They will move forward in time to Rome in the 1930’s and rub elbows with fashionistas and movie stars. Hinged on the real-life events of Artemisia Gentileschi’s life, the first significant female artist, who in a time when it was unheard of to denounce a man for the crime of rape had done just that. Humiliated and disgraced, it was not only Artemisia’s art that saved her, but also the circle of friends who surrounded and supported her and gave her the courage she needed to redefine her destiny. In her day Artemisia set a shining example, and her message is still relevant: when we dare to take control of our destinies and find the thing we are most passionate about we are limitless.
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