NCW Libraries

A newly married couple surrounded by the beauty of Paris, each in their own way struggling to define what marriage could and should look like. A high school teacher confronting echoes of his past as his current love negotiates the place of art in her own life. An artist explaining why the work that should have been the pinnacle of his career fell unexpectedly flat. A rich young man exploring and painting a new landscape and perhaps creating an alternate...

Imagine writing a novel about a man named Jacob Printz who lost his purpose in life. Imagine describing the one constant in Jacob's life, the image of Seated Woman he first viewed as a much younger person, an image he comes back to over and over to make sense of the loves and losses in his life. This is the image by de Kooning that you, as the author, saw in the same museum several years before, an image that intrigues and haunts you, informing your...

Maryann D'Agincourt's stunning novel in sketches follows Jocelyn from childhood to middle age, starting at the moment in her youth when she first hears the name of the mysterious Canadian painter, Alex Martaine, whispered by her parents. Each of them-Jocelyn, her art-loving mother, and her literary father-has a unique relationship with the artist, and he does, in ways the child could never imagine, turn each of their lives around.

"Arky Levin has reached a creative dead end. Guilty and restless after an unexpected separation from his wife, almost by chance he stumbles upon an art exhibit that will change his life. Based on a real piece of performance art, the installation that the fictional Arky Levin discovers is inexplicably powerful. Visitors to the Museum of Modern Art sit across a table from artist Marina Abramović for as short or long a period of time as they choose....

"An artist lost to history, a family abandoned to its secrets, and the woman whose search for meaning unearths it all. American photographer Cady Drake shoots local merry-go-rounds, a hobby inspired by a carved wooden rabbit gifted to her following her troubled years in foster care. Now at a crisis point in her life, Cady can't refuse a freelance assignment documenting the antique carousels of Paris. While there, she hopes to track down the true origins...

"A young graffiti artist learns to fight smart against the gentrification threatening her neighborhood"--

A boy and his grandfather cross a language and cultural barrier using their shared love of art, storytelling, and fantasy.

When Miss Greer asks each child in the class to write a story, second-grader Aaron, who loves to draw but struggles with reading, creates a story using pictures.

"Every kid in the world has had a Bad Luck Day, but Daisy Dreamer's might be the unluckiest Bad Luck Day ever"--

When Jane moves to the suburbs and thinks her life is over, she and three new friends form a club to make public art but are soon distracted by romance.