2011 in Review and some good fiction for artists

It's been a rough year at my house. I had knee replacement surgery in March and spent several months playing Angry Birds, Plants vs Zombies, and reading *lots* and *lots* of books. One new author I discovered, because of being recommended to me, was Louise Penny.

In once sense, her Armand Gamache books are slow paced police procedurals. But in another way, because of the characters in her small town, and their work, these books are about the internal struggles of artists. And, in particular, two artists who are married to each other while being in different phases of their careers. I find these books require much more focus from me as a reader than the usual murder mystery. And I have enjoyed watching the characters grow and change. I don't read that many mysteries anymore, so I'm not sure if the focus on the characters is unusual or not. I *do* highly recommend these. They have the best characteristics of good novels within the setting of a police procedural and I found the many artist characters and their struggles illuminating for my own process as an artist. The most recent book in the series is A Trick of the Light but I would recommend reading them all in order because of the evolution of the characters.

As for 2011, I did, despite the knee recovery, create a few new pieces but I am still reworking my artistic process to allow for my physical limitations. And I'm cleaning up all the debris that accumulated from several months of inactivity in my studio. I look forward to sharing my new work with all of you in the near future.