Book Club Appeals to Readers and Art Lovers

A love of art and a fascination with history is an irresistible combination for Beatrice Heptlinger.

The combination draws her to for its Book and Brush Club once a month.

“I joined the club so I could study art and the artists' lives, to learn more about what it takes to be an artist,” she said. “Actually, it’s not just the art. It’s a study of history that makes it all so interesting for me.”

The Book and Brush Club, a book study group organized by Mentor librarian Barbara Hauer, meets the last Wednesday of each month to review and discuss their latest read.

Hauer’s inspiration for The Book and Brush Club came to her in 2009 while she was writing a grant titled "Picturing America – Icons of American Culture."

“One of the requirements of the grant was to do a program,” Hauer said. “I thought I could do a program about the art and then tie in with a book about the artist, written by the artist’s sister.”

Her program was a success, and the concept of combining art with a book based on the life and times of the artist was born.

“We average 20 members at any given time,” she said. “But members can join and then go on to something else.”

Book club member Diane Payak lives only steps from the library’s door. She said the club is a convenient and enjoyable way for her to stay in touch with subjects of interest to her and to socialize with others sharing her same interests.

“I’ve taken art classes at Lakeland, and I enjoy studying the artists and learning about their lives and times. This club is a great way for me to combine that with reading. I have always been an avid reader, too,” she said.

In March The Book and Brush Club read Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland.

The book is about the life of Clara Driscoll, a former Ohio resident, as she labors away for Louis Comfort Tiffany at his glass cutting studio in New York from the late 1800s until 1909.

Driscoll would become known as one of the Tiffany Girls – employees of the famed artist Tiffany. She designed many of the stained-glass Tiffany lamps now highly sought by collectors, as well as mosaic pieces, windows and vases. She worked for Tiffany for about 20 years, until 1909, when her marriage ended her career.

While working for Tiffany, Driscoll wrote lengthy letters to her family about her work and in 2005 those letters were discovered and the story of the Tiffany Girls surfaced. Until that time, it was generally not known that Tiffany art was actually designed and produced by a group of young women laboring in his studio factory.

Clara and Mr. Tiffany examines the role of women during that period of history, and the plight and poverty of many immigrants. It examines the roles of the very rich and the very poor through the now-historical letters written by Clara Driscoll.

The book club members all seemed to agree, Clara and Mr. Tiffany was also a story about privilege and poverty, and about loving someone unobtainable.

The club’s next read will be The Wayward Muse by Elizabeth Hickey. It’s a story about artist Dante Grabriel Rossetti, his muse Jane Burden and William Morris, a man also known as the father of the British Arts and Crafts movement.

To attend The Book and Brush Club meetings, or for more information about the club, contact Librarian Barb Hauer at 440-255-8811, extension 210.