Arteles Catalogue 2023-2020

Fall into Focus program / SEPTEMBER 2023
Arlene MacLeod
USA
www.arlenemacleod.com
About
I write fiction, trying to immerse myself and readers in
another world. I'm inspired by place, especially natural
places that gather within themselves multiple histories and
the complexity of many lives. I love novels, for the way they
expand outwards into mystery, and for their ability to delve
into one person's character and also wander into all sorts
of digressions that resonate. My favorite novels are the epic
and haunting sort, that linger with images in your mind. In
painting, I'm inspired by art that emphasizes color and
emotion, that begins with the truth and surprises of looking
hard at a subject. I am finding the tension between looking
outside myself while painting, and imagining deeply while
writing to be important.
I live in Maine, in the northeast US, near the ocean. I love to
walk, swim, and be out in nature. I have a grown son with a
son of his own, so I'm now a mother and a grandmother. I
recently retired as a professor of politics, where I focused on
understanding imagination and change.
I've published two novels, A Necessary Garden and Far
Other Worlds, and two story collections, In an Italian Garden,
and Ruins. These days, I’m working on a novel set in the
early 1700s in France, Sweden, and Denmark, and painting
watercolor landscapes. I’m very interested in exploring the
ideas and realities of North.
Writing, Painting, Friends
When I met the Arteles minivan, I was nervous, excited,
unsure what this month might hold. Though I’m usually shy,
I immediately felt the sincerity and creativity of all these new
to me people and as the month went on my gratitude for their
warmth and inspiration only grew.
When I first encountered my room I knew it would be a
hospitable space for writing. In my novels I’m very influenced
by the spirit of place. My desk sat below a large window
looking onto a lilac tree. In the mornings, small birds,
European robins and Great Tits I learned, bustled around in
the branches, searching out seeds and sometimes peering in
the window at me.
A month of life is a long and complicated time to encapsulate
in words. A month at Arteles is much more difficult. So much
compressed in the days. Even the whole season of Autumn
took place entirely within September, from green leaves
to falling swirls of birch to rusty ferns drooping after the
night before frost. Yet one day was long, filled with hours.
Untethered from everyday life, it was wonderful to walk in the
silent forest each morning, talk with new friends over lunch,
write all afternoon, and fit in a watercolor after dinner. And
swim in an icy lake, or gape at northern lights, or watch the
calling swans land on the water.
I came with the intention of reinvigorating my novel. And
within a day or two somehow the task which had eluded me
for weeks and weeks at home simply fell together. I rewrote
the beginning, restructured the whole novel, and got started
on the next draft. I played around with watercolors, making
quick paintings of the landscape. The green of moss, the
darting birds, the big sky of piling purple clouds. It was fun,
playing with something new, daring to be a beginner.
I’m so grateful for this month in a magical place with generous
and fascinating people. Thank you to all the Arteles people
for making this encounter possible. I’m pondering how to
bring the calm, the intensity, and the spacious feeling of
wonder into my everyday life at home.