Summer Reading List | Polly Shindler
Summer Reading List | Polly Shindler
Polly Shindler, Room with Eames, Nolan and Calder (2021). Acrylic on canvas, 11 by 14 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
Books
Circe
Madeline Miller
This novel made me think about source material (Greek myth here) and how it can be used to create original art and begin new narratives:
“So many years I had spent as a child sifting his bright features for his thoughts, trying to glimpse among them one that bore my name. But he was a harp with only one string, and the note it played was himself.
“You have always been the worst of my children,” he said. “Be sure to not dishonor me.”
“I have a better idea. I will do as I please, and when you count your children, leave me out.”
Maud’s Line
Margaret Verble
The idea that specificity of language, location, as well as quality depictions of an inner monologue can absorb an audience. Descriptions of her slow life, her small pleasures, and the rough landscape make this book a standout. I think of it often as Verble turns small moments into very substantial ones.
The novel is set on the Cherokee author’s family’s allotment in Oklahoma, 1928.
“In rural Oklahoma in 1928, years after losing her mother, 18-year-old Maud Nail keeps her small household afloat while her father is off carousing, even as she falls in love and yearns to escape the narrow confines of her existence.” — Kirkus Reviews
The Leavers, Lisa Ko
An American Marriage, Tayari Jones
Very different books, but both of them left me with a new outlook on the concept of a positive outcome. They feature struggling characters who are forced to reconsider what they think they want and need. And then being open to the remaining opportunities. These books have surprise endings in the most satisfying and bittersweet way.
“Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid and moving examination of borders and belonging. It’s the story of how one boy comes into his own when everything he’s loved has been taken away--and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of her past.” — Goodreads
An American Marriage “focuses on the marriage of a middle-class African-American couple, Celestial and Roy, who live in Atlanta, Georgia. Their lives are torn apart when Roy is wrongfully convicted of a rape he did not commit.” — Wikipedia
Polly Shindler, Porch Time, (2021). Acrylic on canvas, 20 by 16 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
Other Recommendations
Podcast — Las Culturistas
Album — Haim, Women in Music III
Movie — Sound of Metal
TV — Ted Lasso
Polly Shindler, Balcony Clothesline with Snowball Virbunum Shrub, (2021). Acrylic on canvas, 20 by 16 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
Polly Shindler
Polly Shindler was born in Hamden, CT in 1977. She received her M.F.A. in Painting from Pratt Institute in 2011. She has shown throughout the US as well as internationally in Madrid and London. She has an upcoming solo show at Jennifer Terzian Gallery (Litchfield, CT) opening in December 2021. Previous solo shows include Time Management at Freight + Volume, Retreat, at Ortega Y Gasset (Brooklyn, NY) and at the project space, Tennis Elbow, at The Journal Gallery (Brooklyn). She has shown in group exhibits such as Just What Is It...?, at Cristea Roberts Gallery (London) and Five Points Gallery in Torrington, CT. Recently, she has shown at The Flinn Gallery (Greenwich, CT), Kaller Fine Arts (Washington, D.C.), Hashimoto Contemporary (Berkeley, CA), Able Baker Contemporary (Portland, ME), and Underdonk (Brooklyn, NY). The show at Underdonk, Still Lives, was featured in “Goings on About Town” in New Yorker Magazine in September 2018. She was granted a yearlong curatorial residency at Trestle Projects (Brooklyn) in 2015 and has completed residencies at Vermont Studio Center (2013) and The Wassaic Project (2020). Her artwork was recently chosen as the cover of the novel Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny as well as an upcoming novel by Toni Jordan.
Follow her on Instagram: @pollyshindler
