Welcome to Litsy!

I've been inspired! Reading Mona's Eyes reminded me how much I enjoy art, so when I saw this advent calendar of jigsaw puzzles, I couldn't resist. I currently don't have space to do a large puzzle, but I can certainly make space and time for a 50 piece puzzle each day. I have a short vacation in December, so I'm going to start on Thursday to make up for the days away.

Get this book! The book jacket unfolds and all 52 works of art are there. Mona may lose her sight so her grandfather devises to take her to see one piece of art work for 52 weeks. Art history and easy explanations of each with a story. Loved this!

It‘s been 52 days of joy reading this lovely book, reliving artists I already know, meeting some new ones, reconnecting with 3 amazing museums that I visited on trips to Paris and cementing a life long love affair I have had with art and the power it has to inform, move, sooth and challenge. #europacollective

Ch 52: Pierre Soulages Black is a colour. That black is the absence of all colour in art & science is ALWAYS a hurdle to believe. The Dr meets with Mona & Camille a final time, he‘s leaving his practice. He explains that Mona‘s subconscious has attached sight to her shell pendant & every time she removed it she lost her sight. He implored her to remember she has exceptional sight & not be fooled. Last trip to Beaubourg ( upper right) cont‘d

Ch 51: Christian Boltanski Archive yourself. Paul is going to sell the store and Mona is afraid that Mamie‘s archive will be lost ( she is quite rude to her mother). She begs Dadé to store the archive and write about their lives. Perfect pairing with CB‘s ‘The Impossible Life of C. B.‘ ( all three images ) when I looked at the photo on the dust jacket I thought I was looking at panels with quilt-like metallic pieces on them cont‘d

Ch 50: Marina Abramović Separation is an opportunity to seize. Mona‘s word in French class is euthanasia, the class is riveted & the teacher thinks she had help. Mamie was an advocate for dying with dignity right from the beginning. Dadé takes Mona to see MA‘s ‘Boat Emptying, Stream Entering, White Dragon: Standing, Red Dragon: Sitting, Green Dragon: Lying‘ ( upper right) an interactive art piece that you use your whole body to experience cont‘d

Ch 49: Louise Bourgeois Know how to say no. Mona is still mad at her mom but realizes Camille was looking for the Drs report on her sight when she stumbled upon the journal. So Mona summarizes the report for her parents and Camille knows it‘s time to tell the truth about Mamie. Dadé also realizes that Mona has internalized Mamie‘s last message to her “Forget the negative….keep the light forever inside you” cont‘d

Ch 48: Jean-Michael Basquiat Come out of the shadows. The secret is out! Camille reads Mona‘s diary and learns she has not been going to therapy but to look at art with Dadé. Mona is overwhelmed with rage at this betrayal of privacy. So Dadé takes her to see Basquiat‘s Untitled ( upper right and a close up of faces lower right) Basquiat is the most popular artist in the world, with art in every major museum, and images on products cont‘d

Ch 47: Anna-Eva Bergman Keep starting from scratch again. Mona is struggling with the French teacher, he‘s cruel and coping/preparing for him is detrimental to her learning. She memorizes Baudelaire (upper left) for him and purposely fails to gain back power for herself. The missing stanza is “Far from this place! too late! never perhaps!
Neither one knowing where the other goes,
O you I might have loved, as well you know!” cont‘d

Ch 46: Hans Hartung Go like lightning. Mona and Camille go back to the dr, mom is mad! It‘s been a year and she wants answers. Cryptically the dr says he thinks the source of blindness is psychotraumatic and it appears Mona knows it too. Mona and Dadé go to see Mamie‘s favourite painting ‘T 1964-H45‘ ( right) HH, who was significantly hurt in WW2 adapted his painting style using paint spray guns, like with auto painting, cont‘d

3.5/5
Honestly, what I loved about this book was the art, and the conversations around art between two generations: one discovering it, and one far more knowledgeable, guiding.
I would have been totally satisfied with a simple story of a grandfather initiating his granddaughter to art. The more I was advancing into the story, the less it was holding water...

Ch 45: Niki de Saint Phalle The future of man is woman. Never has a title been more of a desire! Mona continues to write in her journal to get caught up to present day and all she‘s learned and question how Mamie died. Outside the Beaubourg is the Stravinsky Fountain ( centre and lower middle) with sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle ( colour) and Jean Tinguely ( black), a Bonnie and Clyde of the art world cont‘d

Ch 44: Jackson Pollack Go into a trance. Mona starts school and is dismayed to learn her new French teacher is someone she met with Dadé and stuck her tongue out at ? an ominous start to the new school year? Mona‘s pick at Beaubourg is Pollack‘s ‘Silver Over Black, White, Yellow and Red ( upper right) which makes Dadé happy, he feels “(Pollack)‘s esthetic was actually easier to grasp the smaller the work‘s scale” cont‘d

#EuropaCollective

How about it??

Ch 43: Pablo Picasso Everything must be broken. Mona is back at the dr, is there a connection between Mona‘s shell necklace and her sight? Dadé gifts Mona with a straw hat of her grandmother‘s and takes her to see Picasso‘s Aubade (a poem or piece of music appropriate to the dawn or early morning) ( upper right) which was inspired by Titian‘s ‘Venus of Urbino‘ ( lower right) Aubade was painted during German occupation cont‘d

Ch 42: Frida Kahlo What doesn‘t kill you makes you stronger, words that belong to Friedrich Nietzsche & also Kelly Clarkson ?? Mona discovers some newspaper clippings about her grandmother & euthanasia which she does not come right out and tell her Dadé but he catches her drift and takes her to see Frida‘s ‘The Frame‘ ( upper right) oh how I LOVE Frida!!!! A self portrait with reverse painted glass on top cont‘d

Ch 41:Hannah Höch Compose your being. Mona is in her own little world and the older kids can‘t stand it so they bully her. It backfires. Dadé takes her to look at HH ‘s ‘Mother‘( upper right) it is from the Dada movement and an example of photomontage ( upper left) which is different from collage; an artwork made up of mixed materials. Picasso‘s ‘Still life with Chair Caning‘ ( lower right) is an example of collage cont‘d

Ch 40: Constantin Brâncuşi Look up. Mona has a second MRI ( I‘ve had one once and I never thought I was claustrophobic until that day) Mona and Dadé stop outside by the funnels ( lower left) actually called the ‘Igor Stravinsky Fountain‘ to watch a bird charmer which segues well into CB‘s ‘Bird in Space‘ c 1941( upper middle) which isn‘t housed in the main museum but in the Atelier Brâncuşi, a side building ( lower right) cont‘d

Ch 39: René Magritte Listen to your subconscious. It‘s August and Mona has a birthday. She gets a puppy that Dadé refuses to bring on museum trips. So she will recount her visits to Cosmos like Marcel Broodthaers did with a cat ( lower left and middle). Surrealism is today‘s genre with RM‘s ‘The Red Model‘ ( upper left) the paining is classically painted with oils and technique but it‘s unsettling cont‘d

Ch 38 Georgia O‘Keeffe The world is one flesh. Summer holidays are here & Mona is missing her friends, she decides to write a journal including all she has learned with Dadé. They go to see Georgia O‘Keeffe‘s ‘ Red, Yellow and Black Steak‘ ( upper right) GK is an American artist who exemplifies the Bigger is Better ideal that the US is well known for because of its size and fountain drinks ?. GK‘s painting is of Lake George ( lower right) cont‘d

Ch 37 Kazimir Malevich Make yourself autonomous. Mona gets multiple eye tests done and passes all with flying colours. Her eye sight is exemplary. So Dadé takes them to see KM‘s ‘Black Cross‘ ( lower right) which is part of a new movement; Futurism. “..a movement that advocates constant change, the metamorphosis of everything, all the time, often with violence”. He wants to take painting back to elementary forms, pared down abstractions cont‘d

The idea of the book should have been perfect - each chapter was focused on a specific piece of art , but the execution wasn't so great. The story was boring and uncompelling, unemotional and with unbelievable characters.

Ch 36: Marcel Duchamp Stir everything Up. Paul causes a stir at the Sunday market with his prototypes of old dial phones converted to allow cell phones ( top left) & gets quite a few orders. Dadé and Mona head to Beaubourg walking by the Bazar de l‘Hôtel de Ville, BHV ( top right) which is where MD‘s ‘Bottle Rack‘ ( bottom right) originated from, he called it ‘ready-made‘. Later on MD would submit ‘Fountain‘ ( bottom left) to an exhibition cont‘d

Reading time after having cleaned a part of the house ;) Some French magazines for kids, and I'll go on with Mona's Eyes, which I really enjoy so far.
The weather here in San Antonio is very nice 🙂

This started off well, but ultimately didn't draw me in. I have a lot of questions about Mona's family. I realize I live in America, where rent is a nightmare and healthcare is impossible, so maybe I'm wrong to wonder, but how can they afford to live in Paris when Paul's shop is going under and Camille only works part time? Also, does Paul not have parents? Why is there zero mention of his family? #europacollective

Ch 35: Vassily ( Wassily) Kandinsky Find the spiritual in each thing. The school year is ending for Mona and so is elementary school too, a major milestone. A new museum for us, Centre Georges-Pompidou ( upper left photo) but called by most French “Beaubourg” the place, instead of the modern art loving French President. The art today, ‘Study for the cover of the Almanach Der Blue Reiter‘ is actually a journal cover for a group of artists cont‘d

Ch 34: Piet Mondrian Simplfy. Mona‘s last hypnosis session = the truth is out about her sight failing twice, Mona‘s last Wednesday at Musée d‘Orsay but art therapy will continue over summer vacation ? PM‘s ‘Haystacks III‘ c1908 (top right) what?! This can‘t be Mondrain! says everybody everywhere. And so we learn. ‘Mill of Heeswijk‘ c1904 is an early Mondrian when he was doing a Vermeer-ish realism style. Then he found Expressionism cont‘d

Ch 33: Vilhelm Hammershøi Make your inner self talk. Paul‘s tinkering = success and Mona is ashamed that her joy for him is tinged with worry about him backsliding into drinking ? Dadé and Mona walk thru‘ the Tuileries Garden ( bottom left) for ice cream on their way to Musée d‘Orsay. The sunlight thru‘ the trees has Dadé telling her about ‘phosphene‘ light spots on the retina & Brion Gysin‘s ‘Dreamachines‘ ( upper right) cont‘d

Ch 32: Gustav Klimt Let death wishes live. Mona is growing up, summer approaches and she worries about the time with her Dadé and art ending. They visit GK‘s ‘Rose Bushes Under the Trees‘ ( bottom left) which imo looks like magic painted onto a canvas which Dadé explains, with Mona‘s help, to be an explosion “an enthusiastic dynamism” this esthetic comes from Impressionism, mosaic based on tessellae ( bottom right) and decorative arts cont‘d

#EuropaCollective

Hi everyone! We hope you‘ve had time to read Mona‘s Eyes and are ready to discuss. We‘ve only tagged everyone once so scroll down to see all the discussion questions and feel free to ask your own. We hope you‘ll join the discussion even if you‘re only partially through the book. Stay tuned for info about the January read!

#EuropaCollective

#EuropaCollective

#EuropaCollective

#EuropaCollective

Ch 31 Camille Claudel Love is a desire and desire is a lack of something. Mona is hypnotized again and is physically ill because of it ☹️ Mona & Dadé go to look at sculpture today, first they watch art students study Rodin‘s Thought ( top left) a portrait of Camille. ‘The Age of Maturity‘ ( top right) was a commissioned piece that CC used to show the fallout of her relationship with Rodin (bottom right) who returned to Rose, leaving CC cont‘d

Ch 30: Vincent Van Gogh Pin down your dizziness. Mona is quite melancholy about her grandmother, Collette, & how little information she knows about her. Mona & Dadé look at ‘The Church of Auvers‘ (top right) Van Gogh loves the church & people but he is over empathetic so this love leads to madness. His infamous ‘Starry Night‘ was painted while he was recovering in a mental hospital. My Lego set (bottom right) captures the movement in the night sky

I like how this goes through the art world journey, from early paintings to modern day but the things I loved about the novel were also the things that made it feel slightly monotonous, depending on my mood! Some days I was savouring the reflectiveness of it, the lessons, learning about art and artists. Other days not so much. It doesn‘t lack for plot or characterisation when I think about it but sometimes it FELT like it did when reading 🤷‍♀️

Ch 29 Edward Burne-Jones ( upper middle) Cherish melancholy. Mona teaches the class all about George Seurat and his painting and feels she is rubbish at it ☹️ she and Dadé look at ‘The Wheel of Fortune ( top left) and learn about the Pre-Raphaelites, a brotherhood of English painters “these artists sought to return to an ideal previous to Raphael” this is the Industrial Revolution era of Queen Victoria and immoral visions cont‘d

I'm over halfway through, but I'm losing momentum... Not sure I'll be done by Saturday. I'm still trying though! One critique I have that isn't about the story/writing is that there should be a list of the artworks somewhere inside the book in case it gets separated from its dust jacket. #europacollective

Ch 28: Paul Cézanne Come, fight, sign, and persist. Mona under goes hypnosis and is reliving being blind but keeps going back in time to being 18 mons and being with her grandmother. ‘Montagne Sainte-Victoire‘ was painted ‘on the spot‘ by Cézanne, he painted this sight over 90 times! Cézanne‘s style is more solid, he stacks paint like pieces on his canvas, than Monet, who dabs and dilutes his paint for an ethereal look. Cont‘d

Ch 27: Edgar Degas Life must be danced. Mona investigates her grandmother and finds a clue that is unsettling. Dadé and Mona look at The Star by Edgar Degas ( top right). I took ballet from age 5 to 16 and my studio had Degas prints hanging in it for inspiration like Dance Class ( top left I took at MOMA ) and The Star. The pose in The Star is ‘arabesque pencée‘ ( lower right) Dadé is comfortable talking about technique cont‘d

Ch 26: Claude Monet All flees, all fades. Saint-Lazare Station (top right) lower right is a photo of the station today. Hélène, the curator, takes Mona and Dadé behind the scenes of Orsay to see Monet‘s painting set up as it was painted ‘sur le motif‘ (on the spot) on a 3 legged easel. Impressionism was known for this method of painting, thanks to portable paint. Mona gets to see behind the painting for the first time cont‘d

Ch 25 : Édouard Manet Less is more. More hypnotherapy for Mona, she sees her grandmother. Then the father of Impressionism, Manet. The Absinthe Drinker ( left) caused a fallout with his teacher, Luncheon on the Grass ( right) is turned down by the Salon and shown at the Salon des refusés where the public tries to deface it. His Olympia ( bottom) is of a prostitute and further cements his reputation of painting obscenities. Cont‘d

On to the Beaubourg section. I love that Georgia O'Keeffe painting. #europacollective

Great news! Mona‘s eyes is shortlisted for the 2025 Barnes & Noble Book of the Year!!
#EuropaCollective

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/2025-book-of-the-year-finalists/

Read for #europacollective —this was definitely not on my radar. I have mixed feelings about it because I found it to be long and repetitive, but that was part of the point. Mona, a young French girl, temporarily loses her sight. She spends time with her grandfather in the Louvre, instead of therapy appointments. They spend the whole book exploring works of art and finding meaning in their own lives. I must admit, I was rather bored off and on.

Ch 24: Julia Margaret Cameron Life flows into what is hazy. Mona and Dadé meet ‘friends‘ from the Louvre outside at Alfred Jacquemart‘s rhino stature ( centre) fun fact my city‘s museum has a rhino statue by Tom Benner outside too ? inside Dadé shows Mona JMC‘s photograph of Mrs Herbert Duckworth and launches into a long explanation of how photography worked then. Mona‘s takeaway; painting & photography were reversed then in effort, cont‘d

Hope everyone had time to read this book for #EuropaCollective! Just a reminder that we‘ll be discussing the book next Saturday, November 1st. We‘ll have lots of provocative questions to get things going and can‘t wait to hear all your thoughts. Special thanks to everyone who posted about this book during the month. Feel free to add your name or request to be dropped from the tagged list. See you Saturday!

Ch 23: James Whistler A mother is the holiest thing alive. Arrangement in Gray and Black No. 1 aka Portrait of the Artist‘s Mother. Who was 67 in the painting! Yikes, I‘m 61 and feel ancient all of a sudden. Whistler‘s signature is a butterfly because he underwent a metamorphosis after joining Chile to fight the Spanish colonists. He went from charming and whimsical to violent and vengeful.

Ch 22: Rosa Bonheur The animal is your equal. Plowing in the Nivernais. RB felt that animals had a beauty that equaled humans, giving them majesty in her painting. Similar to the bronze lion statue by Antoine-Louis Barye at the entrance of the Orsay. It is thought that George Sand‘s descriptions of animals in The Devil‘s Pool inspired RB‘s painting ( both the painter & the writer were unconventional women cont‘d