Art & Fear

Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

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Art & Fear

By: David Bayles, Ted Orland

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

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About this listen

What is your art really about? Where is it going? What stands in the way of getting it there? These are questions that matter, questions that recur at each stage of artistic development - and they are the source for this volume of wonderfully incisive commentary.

Art & Fear explores the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way. This is a book about what it feels like to sit in your studio or classroom, at your wheel or keyboard, easel or camera, trying to do the work you need to do. It is about committing your future to your own hands, placing free will above predestination, choice above chance. It is about finding your own work.

Art

Education

Higher & Continuing Education

Inspiring

Heartfelt

Thought-Provoking

Selling Art Online

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For me this book featured many new, valuable and thought provoking ideas about the process of art-making. Along with Steven Pressfield's 'War of Art' and Juliet Aristides' books on classical art methods, it is the most inspiring writing I've encountered so far. It takes you to the heart of your fears, and then points out the choices you have to make if you choose to make art. Given the focus on the fears inherent in art-making, I found it somewhat depressing in places, but ultimately uplifting. The authors aren't offering any quick fixes or guarantees - just telling it like it is. I agreed with 90% of their propositions, but I found one or two of their underlying assumptions questionable. Overall, this deserves a five star rating for the amount of thinking and questioning it made me do - a great book.