In this elegiac and brutally honest debut work, a young artist, Rain Morton, attempts to make her mark in Manhattan's art world despite both the advantages and the weight of influence around her: her art critic husband, her art dealer step-mother and her father, a renowned author. But just as Rain begins to make her own professional ascent, a string of setbacks and betrayals send her down a path of self-discovery--both personal and as a painter. On the way, she disentangles her intricate family history. At the fringes of Rain's tumult is the mysterious Colorman, James Morrow of Highland Morrow paint manufactory, whose ancient and arcane paint-making techniques--and hermetic existence--help Rain elucidate her increasingly confused world. Morrow slowly becomes an imprtant ballast to her struggles.
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"As art and life blur together in a narrative as gripping as it is poignant. The Colorman emerges as a deeply moving and evocative exploration of love and loss., creativity and identity. Erika Wood has written a striking novel."
--This text refers to the
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Over The Rainbow,
By
This review is from: The Colorman (Paperback)
The Colorman - a novel by Erika Wood
The art world of Manhattan, with its pretentious artists, and a bucolic Hudson River town, home to a mysterious paint manufacturer, are the settings for this tale of love loss and redemption. What impresses me most about this Dickensian tale of a motherless waif, a cold stepmother, and a strange man with a murky past is its rare description of the tormenting and thrilling process of making art: It was formulaic and facile. It was predictable and pompous. Deceitful and dead. It was just plain bad, and it was sticking to her like fly paper. Rain gripped the stretcher bar and plunged her box cutter straight into the canvas. Past its gooey facade and into the weave. ...Yanking the blade out again, Rain hauled off and slashed the canvas straight through from left to right. Each stab was a release. Each slash unburdened barriers she hadn't realized she'd constructed. The plot follows a typical girl-overcomes-adversity pattern. Rain Morton, an aspiring young artist with a seemingly idyllic existence, has everything going for her - a doting father who's a renowned author, a successful art dealer stepmother and a well connected art critic husband. But life unravels when her husband has an affair then sabotages her career only to leave Rain spiraling downward in an orgy of self-pity. Numbed by booze, reality TV, and the internet, she one day finds inspiration from an improbable location: a county sheriff's site, and more improbably from the pigments given to her by James Morrow, the novel's mysterious and reclusive paint manufacturer. The down and dirty physicality of his arcane and ancient methods- scavenging road kill, grinding bones and cooking fat- bolster Rain's uncertain steps as she reaches for a truer, more authentic form of expression. Honesty and authenticity thus transform what might have been a simple chick lit piece into an insightful explication of the art making process, one that could only come from real experience. The importance of light and color to a painter is built into the structure of the novel by naming chapters for each color in the rainbow, with the addition of black (the absence of color) and white (all parts of the visible spectrum). The feeling each color evokes is beautifully illustrated by quotes from a wide range of poets, artists and musicians, as in the following Jimi Hendrix quote:. PURPLE Purple haze all in my brain Lately things just don't seem the same Actin'funny, but I don't know why `Scuse me while I kiss the sky. - Jimi Hendrix Hendrix associates purple with a definite mental state, whereas other writer's color associations are more oblique, but they always illustrate an interaction between thinking and feeling that is necessary for the production of art. This is further underscored in the beginning of each chapter by a catalogue of associations we have with a color and by historical details about the origin and manufacture of pigments- "Purple is royalty, a connotation that has everything to do with the extreme value of the pigments available for cloth-dying in antiquity." Wood writes. "Tyrian purple was the original purple dye, created from tiny snail-like mollusks." The quest for truth and beauty amid the sordid reality of life is thus the real story of The Colorman and readers will be delighted to learn that in order to write this book, Wood, who had some previous experience fabricating three-dimensional abstract pieces, started drawing portraits which readers can find on her website. Susanne Forestieri [...]
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the creative and mysterious art world,
By
This review is from: The Colorman (Paperback)
I absolutely loved The Colorman by Erika Wood and could not put it down once I began reading it. At first I was not sure what to expect from a book about the New York art world, but the reviews were so impressive and so interesting in their description that I was excited to give it a try. I quickly learned that you don't have to love art or be knowledgeable about the art scene to really appreciate the creative genius of the author. Erika Wood writes with fluid purpose, meticulous attention to word choice, honesty, and mystery. For example, her rich description of the art materials, pigments, and ingredients is so unapologetically detailed and engaging and you become immediately immersed in the vivid colors (and emotional lives) of the characters. This novel clearly furthered my appreciation of the complex process of creating art and of entering the art world. In addition, Wood writes with deep insight and complexity about human connection as well as loss. You don't have to be an artist to love this book but you will find your self engaged and inspired by the true originality of this debut novel. I highly recommend this book!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
prose- like beauty in words of art,
By pst "persephone707" (Cold Spring, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Colorman (Paperback)
Wonderful work by this rising star in her first novel.
Difficult to put down. Great descriptive passages about my beloved Hudson Valley. A book to devour with all of your senses.
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