Strange Art
“This whole series! Just read it and thank me later!! You back yet…? You’re welcome.”
Words just don’t come easily to Art Étrange, if they come at all. His slow speech, self-consciousness, and shyness all combine to keep him isolated from his peers. He can only let his frustrations out on canvas. If it wasn’t for his sister, Morgan, Art would not have survived school, but her love holds Art together through his toughest times and expands his horizons.
“I loved the whole concept—pictures rather than words but the words came.”
Art Something
Strange Art Book 1
“I know. I dream about that, too. But that’s not what I mean. I can’t talk about my dreams. Not that I don’t want to, but there aren’t words. I stumble all over and get frustrated. I… I… can’t…” Dammit! My throat was closing up on me and words were like balloons that were all let go at the same time and I was running back and forth trying to catch one.
Art Étrange is an artist. Yes, Art the Artist with the strange last name. Art Something or another. And because he seldom spoke, had difficulties with groups, and always had his head buried in a sketchbook, no one really seemed to care who he was. Except his sister. And the beautiful girl she introduced him to, Annette.
The three would make a beautiful couple together.
This is the story of how Art came to grips with his disability, fell in love with two women who adored him, and lived hapily ever after.
Of course, it wasn’t all as easy as that.
“The story is beautifully written. While you may suspect how the story will eventually end, the journey through it is well worth the trip. It would be very hard to not love the characters.”
Art Project
Strange Art Book 2
Art is headed to college with his girlfriend/sister, Morgan, and their girlfriend, Annette. How he managed to have two spectacular girlfriends is still a mystery to Art. How they managed to convince his parents that they should all live together in a suite upstairs is baffling. But Art’s family is all a little strange. His mother and grandmother see people’s auras. He suspects his sister does, too. His father is a professor of English Literature and named his children after characters in the Arthurian legends—names the trio has shortened in their endearments to Pen, Fay, and Lady.
And Art is an artist. Enough said.
College is a big, new, scary world for the socially inept artist. At the best of times he can barely get words out of his mouth. Amidst crowds of new people and demanding professors, he is in a constant state of panic. By the end of the first week, Art wants to quit.
Creating a sketchbook of his classes helps him with notetaking and opens a world of possibilities as classmates become models, models become friends, and friends battle the system to right an injustice.
And Art emerges an unwitting leader.
“I like this story. I like it because the protagonist is different. I like it because the protagonist doesn't play football. I like it because Devon knows a shit load about art and shares what he knows. I like it because there is real character development. I like it because because the protagonist is shacked up with two women and it is erotic and not pornographic. This is not a plot driven story, it is a character driven story and requires a level of empathy that is most often attached to victims in stories. The protagonist is most assuredly not a victim; he is an artist.”
Art Critic
Strange Art Book 3
Life is good for Arthur. He has made it to his senior year in college and his art has advanced significantly. His two girlfriends, Annette and Morgan, help keep him balanced, but with real friends in school, Art has begun to come out of his shell. His best friend, Kendra, has advanced her own sculpture and bronze casting to a level that has the 3D department lauding her accomplishments. Submissive model and poet Susan continually surprises them both with her blatant sexual displays. And the enigmatic Mavis…
Arthur has always had a visceral response to the presence of Mavis. He becomes instantly and sometimes painfully aroused. She has joined the fledgling studio group as both photographer and model—a situation that involves Arthur even more deeply with the beautiful blonde with electric blue eyes.
Yes, life is good.
Until the Director of Studio Arts pronounces his criticism of Art’s work. In four words, Arthur’s world comes crashing down. “I’m a little disappointed.”
Plunged into a dark vision of the world, retreating into a corner of his own mind, he seems beyond the reach of friends and lovers. In struggling to the surface again, he must learn and come to grips with his own version of seeing auras.
“Wow. A deep set of characters with the feel of warm love.”
