First Sunday Prose Reading and Open Mic

First Sunday Prose Reading and Open Mic

Presented by the Writers Guild at Bloomington

The featured readers are: Rachel Perry and Greta Lind

Come early to sign up for Open Mic!

Rachel Perry

Since retiring from the job of Fine Arts Curator for the Indiana State Museum from 2003-2012, I’ve occupied my time researching and writing books about Indiana visual artists. Our great state boasts a plethora of fine artists, from the Hoosier Group at the turn of the last century to Regionalists during and after the Great Depression to ground-breaking contemporary artists and the resurgence of plein air painters. I’m now turning my attention to “creative nonfiction.”

I’ve been lucky to be able to work with Indiana University Press and/or the Indiana Historical Society to bring several projects to fruition, including Children from the Hills: The Life and Work of Ada Walter Shulz (Artist Colony Press, 2001); T.C. Steele and the Society of Western Artists 1896-1914 (Indiana University Press, 2009); Paint and Canvas: A Life of T.C. Steele (Indiana Historical Society Press, 2012); William J. Forsyth: The Life and Work of an Indiana Artist (Indiana University Press, 2014); The Life and Art of Felrath Hines: From Dark to Light (Indiana University Press, 2019); and Painter of the Dunes: A Life of Frank Virgil Dudley (Indiana Historical Society, 2021).

Info. about each book cover:

Children from the Hills: The Life and Work of Ada Walter Shulz 

was actually my thesis for a Master’s degree in Museum Studies at the University of Oklahoma. An artist of the early Brown County Art Colony, Ada Shulz was one of the few who saw beauty in the people instead of the landscape.

T.C. Steele and the Society of Western Artists 1896-1914

An academic exploration into the founding and behind-the-scenes machinations of an artist-led group that organized annual traveling exhibitions to major midwestern cities.

Paint and Canvas: A Life of T.C. Steele

I call this book my “T.C. Steele lite.” Written for the Indiana Historical Society’s Youth Biography series, it’s an artist biography painted with a broad brush.

William J. Forsyth: The Life and Work of an Indiana Artist

My favorite artist of the Hoosier Group, Forsyth’s cantankerous personality and jealousy of T.C. Steele did not hamper his ability to paint honest portraits and spontaneous lush Indiana landscapes.

The Life and Art of Felrath Hines: From Dark to Light

My most challenging effort to date, this biography of a geometric abstract artist who was one of the first students to graduate Crispus Attucks High School, illuminates the remarkable career of a man who became Chief Conservator of Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery while quietly perfecting his own paintings.

GRETA LIND is a lifelong creative whose work spans diverse mediums. She’s appeared in All My Children, Missing Persons, and the film Rudy. Greta loved raising her two wonderful boys, acting in The New Harmony Project, co-facilitating Young Women Writing for (a) Change® Bloomington circles, and writing her debut novel, Split Open, which was published in 2021 (audiobook coming soon). Her recent acting work includes two audio drama series: WFIU’s The Ernie Pyle Experiment!, (an Audie Awards® finalist), and Starrynight Productions’ The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Greta was in Cardinal Stage’s production of Our Town as well as Constellation Stage & Screen’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Deathtrap. Greta’s most recent role was in PlayZoomers’ Oscar & Walt. gretalind.com