Art Biz Blog

Book recommendations for wealth and finance

I'm no expert here, but these are four books that I have found useful in our financial support group.

Smart Women Finish Rich by David Bach
It is in this book that Bach explains the latté factor and what it means for your savings. I have three Bach books on my shelf and I find them quite similar (there's another lesson about making money in that fact alone!).

The Energy of Money by Maria Nemeth, Ph.D.
I haven't gotten as much out of this book as I can. We started reading it, but never got around to discussing the whole thing. The subtitle is "A Spiritual Guide to Financial and Personal Fulfillment," which--along with the main title--pretty much tells you about its approach.

Secrets of Six-Figure Women by Barbara Stanny
Real-life stories of women who have made six-figure incomes and how they did it.

 Relax into Wealth by Alan Cohen
The subtitle says "How to get more by doing less." Rather than spotlight formulas and strategies, Cohen focuses on hearth, faith, and vision. Overcoming limiting beliefs is a big part of his message.

If reading books about wealth and money makes your stomach churn, stick with a good art read. We're finishing up the Twitter de Kooning book club, but you can still get in on some of the action.

What does genius have to do with making art? (Book interview)

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Deep Thought Thursday for this very special guest interview. Jennie Nash is the author of The Only True Genius in the Family, a novel that revolves around the lives of three generations of artists. It’s a fast, easy, and fun romp through the worlds of commercial photography, artists’ estates, graduate school, galleries, and more. I confess to waking up at 3:15 a.m. one morning to finish the last few chapters because I wanted to know the ending.

Jennie agreed to a brief interview about her book for the Art Biz Blog.

Alyson: Your story is full of creative people: painters, photographers, opera singers, bakers. What role do artists play in your real life?

Jennie:  I’m completely inspired by people who make art, and by the places where they make it, and by the tools they use. I find it all incredibly inspiring. I think that in another life I must have been an artists or an art patron – or maybe that is something still to come.

Alyson: As in the real art world, there is a gray area that exists in your characters’ lives—between art and commerce. Claire, at times, feels like a sell-out because she “just” photographs food. She even says its her husband-agent’s job to “make her into a marketable brand,” a phrase that would only be uttered behind closed doors in the high-end art world. I’m curious as to how you researched the art world and where you learned your most valuable lessons.

Of sharks and tribes

I’ve been reading two books simultaneously: Tribes by Seth Godin (just finished) and The $12Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art by Don Thompson. They’re interesting reads--separately and together.

Godin speaks of heretics. No, not that kind. He talks about the heretics that try something different and change the world. Don't do what everyone else is doing. Do the opposite! Godin inspires you to put down the darned book and start leading!

Thompson harps on branding: branded artists, branded galleries, and branded collectors. While “branding” might be new to the art world, the way business gets done in the gallery-auction-museum world has been around for centuries. Thompson’s heretic is Damien Hirst, creator of the $12million stuffed shark and branded artist extraordinaire.

Things are changing! Twenty years ago we could only think of one branded artist: Warhol. Now, there are many more. The economy and a new generation of artists (who grew up online and with marketing) will bring about more changes. How will art be sold and collected in the future?

Stick around . . .

Book tour goes into the Rockies this weekend

The studio tour for I'd Rather Be in the Studio! heads into the mountains to lovely Carbondale, Colorado on Sunday, October 12. I'll be saying a few words, answering questions from artists, and signing books at the studio of Ellen Woods. Drop in or email me if you need directions.

Next up: Santa Fe and Albuquerque on November 12-13.

New to my bookshelf and bedstand

On a post awhile back, I listed some of my favorite nonfiction books about art and solicited others. Good to know you all are reading. Because of your suggestions, my bookshelf overfloweth. And I am afraid I'm now reading three books at once. What's that they say about focus?

Here's what's on my shelf:

Barbara Ann Kipfer, Consider This: Questions That Make You Think. Who recommended this to me? It was about a month ago.

Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, and Robert B. Cialdini, Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. Heard interview on NPR's Talk of the Nation.

Malcolm Goldstein, Landscape with Figures: A History of Art Dealing in the United States. Recommended by Edward Winkleman.

Musa Mayer, Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston. Recommended by Christine DeCamp.

Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle. Recommended by Sari Grove.

Some of my favorite non-fiction book recommendations for continuing your art education

Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell
by Deborah Solomon
(and you think you have problems)

The Girl With the Gallery: Edith Gregor Halpert And the Making of the Modern Art Market
by Lindsay Pollock
I’m reading this right now. I’m only a little more than halfway through (it’s dense!), but I can heartily recommend it. Halpert was way ahead of her time--thank heavens!

I Bought Andy Warhol
by Richard Polsky
As I said in an earlier post: lots of juicy gossip about the New York artworld.

Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X
by Deborah Davis
A wonderful look at how the portrait artist works with clients and fits into society.

Up next on my shelves:
de Kooning: An American Master
by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan and winner of The Pulitzer Prize and The National Book Critics Circle Award

Still in the queue . . .

Close Reading: Chuck Close and the Artist Portrait
by Martin Friedman
Lots of good stuff here, but it's dense. The pictures are great.

The Unknown Matisse
by Hillary Spurling
Dang! This has been on my shelf for years and I’m a huge Matisse fan. Why can’t I get past chapter one?

Search Inside my book

You can now search inside I'd Rather Be in the Studio! at Amazon.

Yep, I'm a little slow, but it's finally up.

While you're there, note the 18 5-star ratings (and the photo of Burnell Yow reading IRBITS next to the waterfall!). Thanks to everyone who has gotten value from the book and shared it with others.

Artist book recommendation: Painting from the Source

Allison J. Smith has this book recommendation.

I had many blocks (and signs of depression) and created paintings very slowly, less than 10 paintings a year! I found and read the book, Painting from the Source by Aviva Gold, and then followed its method of creating imagery.

I am now block-free! I freely express myself through my art. I create unabashedly, fluidly, and in 2007 created 180 paintings. And I have to say, the paintings now are of a much higher quality. Not to mention, I am no longer stressed-out and I think more clearly than I have in my entire life!

Passionate recommendation of book

If you haven't yet read Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time, I urge you to get it or to order it from your library. It's the story of Greg Mortenson, whom I heard speak in Boulder last January, and the schools he has built (with almost no funding) in the poorest regions of Pakistan (and, now, Afghanistan). His goals are pure and honorable. If you really want to know what it's like in that part of the world and want to read the story of a true hero, the book is for you. Mortenson is sure to win the Nobel Peace Prize some day.

It really doesn't have anything to do with art, but it has everything to do with inspiration. One person can make a huge difference in the world.

I have been intrigued with Afghan culture since I worked at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, which houses a selection of Gandharan sculpture. The world was horrified when the Taliban destroyed the colossal Buddhas of Bamiyam, which were Gandharan. Mortenson's personal stories reveal a truly beautiful people that you will fall in love with.

Read it to be inspired!

Two books: one good, one not so much

I just finished two books. The first is a must read. The second is not.

The first is The Rescue Artist. It’s a fantastic book about the 1994 recovery of Edvard Munch's painting, The Scream. It profiles detective Charley Hill, what he thinks about the people who steal great works of art (not what I had been told!), and how he gets criminals to trust him as he goes undercover. I love the way the author, Edward Dolnick, wove numerous stories of other art heists and recoveries throughout the book. It reminded me of the way  Jon Krakauer (a favorite author of mine) approaches his real-life stories.

Interestingly, I also picked up the April ARTnews, where there is an additional story about art theft, which features The Scream.

The second book I read was artist Joe Andoe’s memoir Jubilee City: A Memoir at Full Speed. Like me, Andoe hails from Oklahoma. But he had a different experience altogether of the Sooner state. Andoe received his MFA from the University of Oklahoma, and the museum there, where I worked from 1995-98, has a nice collection of his paintings (Horse is a stellar example). I briefly met Andoe at an opening during my stint there, so I was compelled to buy and read the book.

It took me awhile to get through the book. Not because it’s dense, but because it’s mostly a recount of Andoe’s drug and alcohol abuse. That was a part of Oklahoma that I really didn’t experience. (I realize that geography doesn’t really define experiences of substance abuse.)

While I found Andoe’s countless drug stories boring, I kept reading in hopes of getting to his time in the New York art world. I wanted to read about his painting and the get the skinny on the dealers and life inside. Readers looking for this will be sorely disappointed. The book seems to be more of a release for him rather than a resource for insight into the art world. In spite of his life at full speed, it's easy to see that Andoe loves his children. And it must be said that the book doesn't promise to reveal anything about his art or the art world. It is what it is.