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geofrog 's review for:
Sirens & Muses
by Antonia Angress
"I can see the shape of you.”
If I had infinite time and money and no need of a real career, I would be in art school. I love art history and art itself and if I didn’t need to pay bills, I know I’d be enrolled and passionate about my studies. When I heard this novel followed art students at an elite private art school, I was immediately intrigued. Sirens & Muses follows four artists connected to Wrynn, an elite art school in their quest for success. Three of the artists are students and one is a visiting professor. While this novel could be described as having no plot and follows the lives of random artists and people who love the arts, I was glued to this novel the entire time. The prose is simple yet effective and the characterization is sharp and colourful while still being real at all times. I loved the view into the art world and how it’s shaped by culture and capitalism, and how that changed the artists themselves when navigating the logistics of the art landscape throughout the world.
"I think that the people we become infatuated with are the ones who have the qualities we want.”
I think fans of contemporary literature will enjoy this novel but not many other readers will connect with this the way that I did. I loved the characters for their humanness and for how messy and realistic they all felt. Any of these characters could have been people I would have met at a real art school. I loved the realistic view of the art world and the realistic side of being an artist in the world. I loved how art and artists are shaped by different external and internal factors and seeing how it connected all the characters. The connections between the characters are the heart of the novel and reflective of the title, and I loved seeing how each character had their own muse, or people they felt called to. It made me think about all the people I felt called to in my life and I often wonder about my own muses and what became of them. I saw a lot of myself and people I’ve known in this book. Overall, this was a beautifully human look into the art world and a welcome one at that.
“The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the colored canvas, reveals himself.”
If I had infinite time and money and no need of a real career, I would be in art school. I love art history and art itself and if I didn’t need to pay bills, I know I’d be enrolled and passionate about my studies. When I heard this novel followed art students at an elite private art school, I was immediately intrigued. Sirens & Muses follows four artists connected to Wrynn, an elite art school in their quest for success. Three of the artists are students and one is a visiting professor. While this novel could be described as having no plot and follows the lives of random artists and people who love the arts, I was glued to this novel the entire time. The prose is simple yet effective and the characterization is sharp and colourful while still being real at all times. I loved the view into the art world and how it’s shaped by culture and capitalism, and how that changed the artists themselves when navigating the logistics of the art landscape throughout the world.
"I think that the people we become infatuated with are the ones who have the qualities we want.”
I think fans of contemporary literature will enjoy this novel but not many other readers will connect with this the way that I did. I loved the characters for their humanness and for how messy and realistic they all felt. Any of these characters could have been people I would have met at a real art school. I loved the realistic view of the art world and the realistic side of being an artist in the world. I loved how art and artists are shaped by different external and internal factors and seeing how it connected all the characters. The connections between the characters are the heart of the novel and reflective of the title, and I loved seeing how each character had their own muse, or people they felt called to. It made me think about all the people I felt called to in my life and I often wonder about my own muses and what became of them. I saw a lot of myself and people I’ve known in this book. Overall, this was a beautifully human look into the art world and a welcome one at that.
“The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the colored canvas, reveals himself.”