I got this book for a friend looking to start a career in ceramics and they raved about it. They told me it was the perfect thing to give a person who had just graduated with a BA in the creative arts. Win!

I was interested in this book because I am an aspiring artist, painter, and I would like to learn how I can make my art more than just a hobby. This is the first book I have seen to focus on this topic.

The author tells of the careers thirteen artists, authors, and musicians. I found this a unique and informative book.

I received this galley from NetGalley.

This book is a series of mini-biographies of well known artists written by a professional artist (Aaron Dworkin is a classical violinist, was a member of the Obama National Arts Policy Committee and until recently served as dean of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance.) Dworkin writes an introduction that describes his own development as a musician and how he had to integrate business skills and hustle in order to move his artistic career forward. This book is intended to provide artists with different templates to help them have commercial and creative success.

Dworkin provides biographical sketches less than 10 pages long apiece of artists past and present (several of whom I suspect he knows personally). Each piece traces how each person began their careers, discusses obstacles to their paths and concludes with a couple of pithy takeaways to learn from their example. These examples include Shakespeare, Jeff Daniels, Wynton Marsalis, Chip Davis, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Marin Alsop.

All of these people are indeed inspirational and if you're looking for a quick boost to your motivation this could be useful. I found that the pithy takeaways didn't always correspond with what each artist went through. While obstacles to their courses were described, there was no detail or interior reflection on how these obstacles were conquered; it was more of a "well, I wasn't going to let anything stop me and I just powered through" sort of description. That ended up being a bit intimidating to me, because without more explanation I actually got discouraged because I had a hard time picturing how I could find that resilience in myself and felt like maybe I just didn't have what it took or wasn't meant to be creative.

So, quick interesting sketches of some well known creative professionals. You may find the advice useful, trite or discouraging- YMMV.

Interesting concept for this book! The author explores the lives and careers of thirteen creatives, undisputably huge successes in their fields, and uses them as examples for conveying advice to his readership on how to be similarly successful. From Shakespeare to Wynton Marsalis, Dworkin covers some big names who've had enormously influential careers in their disciplines.

If you are looking for a self-help book with pep talks and checklists, this is not that book. Instead, Dworkin sets out his case through illustrative example. Recommended for young artists eager to learn more about how they might make a splash in their own field and leverage success for career longevity.