Letters to a Young Artist

I love this book, put out by Art on Paper.

"A lot of the stuff I learned about art and being an artist did not come from visual artists; it came from writers like Keats (in his letters) and composers like Ned Rorem (in his diaries) and oudoorsmen like Ray Bergman (who wrote about fly fishing for trout). So read as much as you can and get into the thick of life whenever you can -- learn a foreign language, learn things about other people, go places and do things that have nothing to do with art -- because it's the stuff that has nothing to do with art that has everything to do with art."

-Joseph Grigely

And, a few pump-up words of advice from Xu Bing:

"I have always thought that to be an artist, the first thing you must do is clarify what art is and what its principles are. Specifically speaking, you must identify what an artist does in this world and what relationship exists between yourself, society, and culture. And even more specifically, you must determine your particular commutative relationship with society...

Everyone has strengths and limitation. Those who know how to work also understand that whatever limitations they meet can be transformed into things that are useful to them. Using a limitation well transforms it into a strength. Wherever you live, you will face that place's problems. If you have problems then you have art. Your plight and your problems are actually the source of your artistic creation. The majority of young artists who come to New York to develop their careers are eaer to enter the mainstream. But, they have to spend time working other jobs to supposrt their costs of living here. It may seem like you are wasting time that could be used for creating art, but you needn't actually worry about this too much. As long as you are a true artist every field that you are engaged in outside of art circles -- living and working -- will produce treasure, which sooner or later will be used in the creation of your art. It is not important to plunge headlong into this mainstream system. "