Judith Scott-Bound And Unbound

Art, in it’s purest form, is a form of expression. While some artists have trouble communicating in their daily lives, their work speaks volumes.

Judith Scott did not have happy childhood. She was one half of a set of fraternal twin girls. While her sister Joyce was born healthy, Judith was born deaf, mute and with down syndrome. Her parents institutionalized her at an early age. In 1987, Judith joined the Creative Arts Center. There, she began a new life as an artist. Her art combines yarn, pieces of wood and other materials to expose the true person within.

An exhibit of her art will be at the Brooklyn Museum up until tomorrow. What is fascinating to me is that her art is full of color. It is vibrant, alive, sometimes dark, but fascinating.  It is unconventional, but extremely powerful. Her art is a symbol of her feelings as not just a woman of her generation, but a disabled woman for whom life was that much more difficult for.

I highly recommend this exhibit.

 

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The Nightingale Book Review

It can be said, that it is the darkest times in our lives that will often force us to do things that we may never have previously considered doing.

Earlier this year, best selling author Kristin Hannah published The Nightingale.  The novel starts in France in 1939. Vianne and Isabelle are sisters, but they are different as night and day. Vianne, the elder by ten years, is the practical, reliable sister. Married with a young daughter, she is content to live as she is. Isabelle, at eighteen, is hotheaded and often thinks before she speaks.

When war breaks out and the Nazis invade France, Vianne watches her husband join the other men to fight for their country.  But the French are no match for the Germans and Vianne, like many women, is forced to house a German soldier. Isabelle falls in love with a man who will ultimately betray her.  Both Isabelle and Vianne will join the fight against the Germans as they both can, risking their lives and the lives of the ones they love.

This book is nothing short of amazing. I could not put it down. The details are tangible. The story is compelling. The relationship between the sisters is vivid.

It is so far, one of the best books that I have read this year.

I highly recommend this book.

Making Of A Lady Review

Money can be a wonderful thing. Money puts food on the table, provides us with a home and enables us to put on clean clothes every day. But money can sometimes bring out the worst in people.

In The Making Of A Lady (2012), Emily Seton Fox (Lydia Wilson) is short on cash, but long on intelligence. After she loses her position as secretary to Lady Maria Byrne (Joanna Lumley), she receives a marriage proposal. The marriage proposal is from Lord James Walderhurst (Linus Roache), Lady Byrne’s widowed nephew. What starts of as marriage of convenience quickly becomes a marriage of affection and respect.

James, who was previously an officer in the military, is called back to India, leaving his new wife alone with only the staff for company. As soon as her husband leaves, Emily discovers that she is pregnant.  James’s cousin Captain Alec Osborn (James D’Arcy) and his Indian born wife, Hester (Hasina Haque) come on what seems to be a friendly visit. But all is not what it seems.  If James dies without an heir, Alec will inherit. Odd things start to happen and Emily begins to suspect that Alec and Hester will do anything, including murder, to inherit.

Based on the book The Making Of A Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett, this 96  minute program combines romance, drama and a good amount of suspense.

I recommend it.