Lives of the Artists

My posting habits are strange. I post frequently for a few days, then there are gaps of a few weeks. I post more when I am feeling happier with my work (which I am now after a great studio visit yesterday), when I'm behind schedule or I'm just not resolving anything, I feel a little deflated and can get quite obsessed with my work, and don't think about much else! I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I picked up a fabulous book the other day "Lives of the Artists" (Calvin Tomkins) to add to the expanding collection of artist biographies we have. I find these books so inspiring because no matter how famous, artists seem to hit the same old obstacles when producing a body of work, all the time. This book profiles artists such as Cindy Sherman, Damien Hirst and Jasper Johns (wish I was the one who dreamt of a painted American flag one night). My fav would have to be Julian Schnabel who is a painter turned film director but desperately wants to be known for his painting, more so then his films. In an interview when someone asked whether he was going to make films now instead of paintings, he answers "Listen, I've made a thousand paintings and I've made two films. I'm a painter. Does that answer your question?"