Treasures: The Memoir of an Artist

No one ever had to tell Elaine Marinoff to "get a life." After art school in Paris, Marinoff tries to feel fulfilled in an oppressive mid-century Los Angeles marriage to a newly minted MD. But when she divorces him after 21 years of marriage, she finds her true genius is not just for art, not just for surviving but for thriving as a mother, artist, and sensual lover of life. Elaine becomes a skillful real estate investor, critically acclaimed painter, and a model to modern women everywhere. At 53, she leaves Los Angeles permanently to become a key player in the New York art scene, turning a former factory into her studio and finding, on September 11, 2001, she is living at Ground Zero. After much persuasion, she accepts a date with distant cousin Hilly Kristal, and finds herself deeply in love with this founder of the epicenter of New York's music scene, CBGB's. She eventually allows her Erotic Series of paintings (hidden for decades in a basement) to be discovered and exhibited by a New York art dealer who proclaims, "We've found your Treasures."