Triptych: 3 Women Making Art

Pam Walton's Triptych profiles ceramist Lana Wilson, painter Nan Golub, and author Jeanne DuPrau, all of whom are in their 70s. Each woman shows examples of her work and talks about the creative process. Wilson, who makes dishware and folk-art totems with religious motifs, molds clay on camera as she explains her methods. Golub displays several of her paintings, characterizing her approach as casual—“slap 'em on there”—and describes how she works with materials, images, and “delicious” unmixed pure color. The subjects also discuss what inspires them: for DuPrau, her 1950s childhood in the shadow of nuclear catastrophe informs the City of Ember series, “probably an expression of [her] own personal darkness as well as the darkness of the nuclear world”; Golub is excited by the visual life of “moving, dancing” New York City, and is obviously emotional as she shows Walton sketches of her longtime partner, who urges her to use more heart than technique in her work. Each artist also recalls early responses to her art: Wilson spent years entering shows and being rejected before achieving success; Golub's initial reviews said she painted like an old man; DuPrau shows the “perfect” opening page of her first manuscript and the same page marked up with her editor's critique. A well-produced, colorful visit to the work spaces and into the minds of older women artists, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (M. Puffer-Rothenberg)