What the Painter Heard: the Life and Times of John Singleton Copley

About 18 years ago, through my husband’s teaching of U.S. History to juniors in high school, I have become fascinated by the story of how our country began. When I researched the topic, I decided to write a novel from the point of an artist of the time. Not a soldier, not a political leader, nor a man who wanted to be drawn into conflict, John Singleton Copley, turns out to be the perfect protagonist. 

What the Painter Heard tells the true story of that colonial artist who was born in Boston as a poor boy to a single mother. He loved painting and became a noted portraitist in the 1760s and early 70s. I imagine Copley is the perfect fly on the wall as he creates much admired portraits of both patriots and Loyalists alike. To distract his sitters, he asks that they bring a friend to keep them company while he hides behind his canvas, laboriously fashioning their images. To his surprise, they soon forget his presence, divulging secrets about the events that changed history. Not wanting to take sides in the conflict but because he had married into a prominent Loyalist family, he has to leave Boston in 1774 for London.

Fleeing to the continent to study the great Renaissance painters and then settling in London, Copley and his family soon find politics follows them across the ocean. He becomes friends with John Adams and others who love the new country, America. He himself is torn, caught between his loyalty to his new found position in London and his beloved Boston back home. His story brings history, art and the pressures of the day to life, for readers who love historical fiction, artistic careers, and how war affects all citizens, not just the soldiers or the leaders of the day.

My novel is available on Amazon in both digital ($3.99) and paperback ($15.99). The digital version has hyperlinks embedded in the text to lead the reader to sites on the internet to view the many paintings and maps included in the story. The paperback has the urls that the reader can type in to see the images.

This and That

Busy days. I am working on several altered book sculptures. Double Vision, a cabinet of allusions to 1880s Gothic fiction, is done. Here are some views:

15" by 12" by 2.75"

Open Cabinet

 

Upper view: Short Story "The Yellow Wallpaper", Penny Dreadfuls in eyeglasses, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes.

Lower view: Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde, newspaper about Jack the Ripper.

Details of the outside edge of the cabinet:

  

Son Dan's wisdom tooth, painted gold, above

Skeleton head, below

I am working on another sculpture, called Book Ends, that is almost done. Several ideas in process and will post them when I get pictures.

Video of My Altered Book Show

I know many of you did not get to my altered book show in April up here in Sonoma. I made a 16.5 minute narrated vido showing the pieces and explaining how I made them and what their content meant to me. If you would like to see it, please click on the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNUM0o1Boag&feature=youtu.be

Please pass on any comments you might have on this site.

Thanks, Emily

The Show at the Sonoma Community Center is Up

 Emily Marks: Altered Books is showing at

the Sonoma Community Center                    The Secret Garden Tunnel Book

276 East Napa Street,

Sonoma, CA 95476

The website for the Community Center is www.sonomacommunitycenter.org.  

 The 19 pieces in the show are the culmination of my work showing pieces that are based on literature and art. They are sculptures that have text, color, imagery and sometimes printed books peeking through. I have gotten over my reluctance to change an already produced book into a new work or art. 

I hope that my exhibition can reach a lot of people. It will be up from April 3-24 2015, in Gallery 212, at the Sonoma Community Center, open from Mon.-Fri. 10 am - 4 pm. The reception will take place on April 10, from 5-7 pm. I will give a short talk about altered books and my interpretations.

The Lighthouse and The Waves

The Joy of Cooking Apron

Cinderella's Dainty Slipper

November 2014

What's Going On

I am working towards a one person show at the Sonoma Community Center in April of 2015. I will be showing approximately 20 altered books, based on literature. I think I will call it Altered Lit. The following are some examples of what will be in the show. The first is a paper quilt from Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. If you click on the thumbnails you can see the pieces enlarged. The second is a life size kimono, knit out of the audio tapes for the novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden. Water-colored origami plum blossoms from the pages of the printed text of the book adorn the outside of the kimono. 

   

    What I Am Looking At

I have been renting alot of movies that I watch while I am exercising. Recently, I have been watching movies about photography. Here are some of my favorites:

"Everlasting Moments" is a foreign film set in Sweden at the beginning of the 20th century. A married woman wins a camera in a lottery. Her hard scrabble life is depicted, with many children and a Socialist husband who works on the docks. The taking of pictures becomes her creative outlet. Sensitively handled and a refreshing break from Hollywood-style movies.

"The Governess" with Minnie Driver and Tom Wilkinson is set in the 19th century. A young Jewish woman has lost her father and must seek work. She hires out as a governess to a well-to-do family in England, disguised as a gentile. She and the father of the house work on his hobbies and discover how to preserve photographs. A good "small" movie with a cameo by Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

"Shooting the Past" Stephen Poliakoff wrote and directed this film for British TV. It concerns an American property developer who buys and wants to renovate a London building that contains a vast photographic library. He comes to realize what the collection means as he grapples with resistance on the part of the photography collection's staff to relinguish control to him. A 2-disk set, this is a must for anyone who appreciates the value of memory and visual records.

"Blow-Up", by Michelangelo Antonioni was a classic in my youth. A fashion photographer, played by David Hemmings, photographs for his own use what he thinks is an empty park. As he develops the film, he becomes suspicious that something untoward has happened there. The Mod scene, rock and roll, drugs and sex are all part of the questioning of reality and illusion.

"Finding Vivian Maier" is a documentary produced by John Maloof and Charlie Sisken. John Maloff appears in the film and describes how he happened to buy an old box of photographs. Smitten with the work of Vivian Maier, he goes on to collect more of her work as she has recently died. It turns out she was a brilliant photographer who took her photos, slides and videos without showing them to anybody in her life. She worked as a nanny to several families who are interviewed in the film. A recluse, a hoarder, and a driven soul, a picture emerges of a personality and an artist, leading to the question of whether her post mortem fame is what she would have wanted.

Do you have any more favorites? Send me an email.

Emily