Goodbye Edvard Munch

What an inspirational morning! I just got back from my third visit to the Munch : Van Gogh exhibition in the Van Gogh Museum (ends January 17, 2016). Yeah, I know, three times? Considering Edvard Munch is one of my favorite artists, I get free admission thanks to my national museum card, and it’s only a fifteen minute bike ride away, I had to go again! The Van Gogh Museum is still one of my favorite places in the city, even after living here fourteen years. That’s probably why it plays such an important role in my upcoming book, The Lovers Portrait (out in June 2016), the story of an American art student who finds clues to the location of a collection of artwork which had seemingly disappeared after the Second World War ended.

When I biked to the museum this morning, the question “What inspires me to write?” was running through my brain. It’s often exhibitions like this one that really get my creative juices flowing, though not how you might assume. Those tiny text boards next to the masterpieces provide the intriguing details which interest me most. An obscure fact about the artist’s life or the painting’s creation can pique my curiosity enough to send me running to a local library to learn more.

Those tidbits of information can spark an idea for a crazy plot twists, a character’s background, or even the basis for a novel, as is the case with my third book, currently in draft form. This yet-to-be-named manuscript’s plot was directly inspired by a few quirky facts I’d read about while working on an exhibition for the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam about the bis-poles of Papua New Guinea.

What inspires you?