The Rogue Artist S Survival Guide

An undisciplined, story-centric, off-beat, and honest approach to demystifying what it takes to become a full-time artist. This book is all about blazing your own trail and creating your career as an artist, instead of waiting around to be discovered.

What Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential did for the world of chefs and restaurants, Making It does for the art world. Making It is a gonzo memoir of an established artist crossed with objective advice, tips and tricks fleshed out by a best-selling art historian and Pulitzer finalist writer on art. It peels back the shroud and reveals the highs and struggles in the life and career of a working artist. Specifically aimed at aspiring artists and art students, it will be of interest to anyone who wants to know what it is like to have an artist’s-eye-view of the art world, asking the tough and often glossed-over questions that rising artists inevitably have, not only about the creative process, but about navigating the turbulent waters of the social, professional, academic, critical, museum and trade elements of a career as a visual artist. How best to deal with the abundance of alcohol, drugs and sex while wire-walking your own artistic dilemmas? How can an artist launch his or her career and help it flourish? What’s it like to achieve every artist’s dream, including showing at the Venice Biennale? What does it really mean to "make it" and how can you maintain your groove once you’ve arrived? All these questions and more are answered in this combination tell-all memoir and how-to manual for rising artists and anyone wanting a behind-the-scenes tour of what it’s like to be an artist.

Passion, humiliation, and depravity are the cornerstones of the artistic spirit. How else to rationalize one's deliberate choice to face a life of unsigned rejection letters, calls from worried parents and collection agencies, and cups and cups of ramen noodles? Being a noble artiste is a rough gig. It's one part denial, one part masochism. And it gets all the respect of being a fry cook, without the convenient minimum wage. Only a fool would agree to such soul crushing -- until now. The Starving Artist's Survival Guideboldly reassures both the dreamer and the doer that you are not alone.Regardless of whether you are a painter, a poet, a musician, a writer, an actor, or simply paralyzed by an English lit or fine arts degree, help has arrived. Topics include the pros and cons of various artistic day jobs ("People love clowns, except for the 80 percent who want to beat them up and the 20 percent who do"), coping with form-letter rejections through the healing power of haikus ("You, blinking red light, / A call back from my agent? / No, just goddamn Mom"), a survey of artists' dwellings (from the romanticized loft to Mama's rent-free attic), and most important, "Holding On: Ten Good Reasons to Keep Your Head out of the Oven."

There is a plethora of lore for surviving in the art world. Artists, curators, gallerists and technicians share information and tips all the time, but this oral history of survival has never really been recorded. This handy guide does just that by compiling useful hints and tips from a range of art professionals.

Blending one-on-one guidance, practical advice and inspirational examples, this guide to how to survive and succeed in art school covers all the new demands that being an art student entails.

New York City is an exciting, enchanting city that is extremely expensive and the competition in the arts is fierce. "I'm Here, Now What?! An Artist's Survival Guide for NYC!" is a practical living guide and virtual friend to making it happen in your life even if you haven't made it in your artistic career. . .yet.