Today, a blast from my Rhode Island past. More than two decades ago, when I was a reporter in Providence, I knew a writer named Carol Bonomo Albright and she crossed my radar recently to let me know she’d gotten a novel published. It features a plot element about art – the art of 17th century painter Artemesia Gentilleschi. If the name is familiar it may be because the Wadsworth Atheneum put on an exhibit of her work not long ago, and I toured it for Open Studio with my art historian friend Fran Altvater. I’ll put a link to that episode on the openstudioradio.org blog post. But back to Carol. She didn’t even know I had this radio show but of course I invited her on. Our conversation touched on Carol’s writing life, the novel – Hold Up The Head of Holofernes – and how art heals the three main characters. She reads three sections of the book, each set in a different time period, and we even had enough time to touch on Carol’s growing up in New York’s Greenwich Village. It’s a yeasty episode about art and writing. You’re going to enjoy it.
Mentioned in the episode: Caravaggio’s Judith beheading Holofernes, left, and Gentileschi’s. Which do you favor?
A link to the discussion of the Wadsworth Atheneum’s traveling Artemesia Gentileschi exhibit
Open Studio 