ART, TRAVEL, KARI AND LUCAS

All the Kari and Lucas books are going to have something to do with art, and something to do with travel.  One of the things I want to do with these books is to let readers see that there's nothing snooty about art.  Regular kids can like all kinds of art—paintings like the ones by Rembrandt, sculptures like the Parthenon Sculptures in the British Museum, the kind of music Seneca Crane plays, like Rhapsody in Blue and preludes by Chopin, an African art and dance, and all kinds of other art forms.  And I want to show kids that there's a big world out there, and I want them to want to explore it and have adventures in it.

So the first book, The Mystery of the Third Lucretia, is about Rembrandt's work and takes place in London, Paris and Amsterdam.  The second book, Rescuing Seneca Crane, is about how Kari and Lucas find and rescue a fifteen-year-old concert pianist who was kidnapped after playing a concert with an orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. The third book, Adventure at Simba Hill, is about Kari and Lucas tracking down the people who are stealing ancient rock art from a cave on the Masai Mara game park in Kenya. 

WHAT'S IMPORTANT ABOUT ART

If you've read The Mystery of the Third Lucretia, you know that Rembrandt painted two pictures of Lucretia. In one, she's all dressed up in a beautiful white and gold gown, and she's holding a dagger like she's getting ready to stab herself. That one hangs in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.  In the other picture she's already stabbed herself, her dress is hanging loose, and there's blood coming out of her side. That one belongs to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and it's the saddest painting I've ever seen. 

A lot of people, when they look at a work of art like this, think about how much money it cost, or what makes it look like other paintings by Rembrandt, or how it's different from pictures by the other "Dutch Masters," or how Rembrandt used paint and brushes to do what he did.

But I'll bet if Rembrandt were still alive, he wouldn't want you to think about any of that when you see his Lucretia paintings. What he'd want you to look at is Lucretia's expression. It is so sad. That's what's important.  It's what Rembrandt wanted you to see and feel, and it's what makes these pictures masterpieces.  

But you have to see them in person. Especially the one that hangs in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.  You can find rreproductions of it online, but none of them really show Lucretia's expression as Rembrandt painted it. You don't see the tears in her eyes. That's why going to museums is so important: you can look through all the art books you like, but when you see the art itself, it's different.  It's better.  It's more powerful.

So go to museums whenever you can.  A lot of them are free, or have free family days.  And when you go, remember just to look at what's in the picture, what the painter was trying to do and to tell you.  None of the rest of it really matters.

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