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Making Art and Making a Living: Adventures in Funding a Creative Life
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Expected 31 Mar 26Win a free print copy of this book!
8 days and 20:32:38
10 copies available
U.S. only
Daily Rituals author Mason Currey weaves together delightful, illuminating stories and reflections about how famous artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers throughout history have managed to successfully (or not) support a creative life.
Many of us are drawn to a life in the arts but daunted by how to balance that ambition with the very real need to pay rent and put food on the table. It is impossible to become an accomplished painter, composer, or novelist without spending time experimenting, making false starts, absorbing criticism, reading, talking, and moping about the house. All this time must be purchased, one way or another. Is the history of art and ideas just a history of rich kids?
The answer, of course, is no. William Carlos Williams was a family doctor. Franz Kafka was an insurance man, as were Charles Ives and Wallace Stevens. Grace Hartigan temped. James Joyce mooched off his brother; Christopher Isherwood ingratiated himself with a wealthy uncle. Virginia Woolf and Louisa May Alcott were determined to make their writing pay no matter what. And their material circumstances had an impact on all of their creative outputs.
From family money to jobs to colorful schemes, Mason Currey, author of the acclaimed Daily Rituals, explores both the well-worn and unlikely paths forward for the up-and-coming artist. Making Art and Making a Living is an entertaining and thought-provoking examination of the collision of creative ambitions with real-world necessities and of the messy, glorious, torturous compromises that gifted individuals have patched together when facing the eternal dilemma of an artistic life.
Many of us are drawn to a life in the arts but daunted by how to balance that ambition with the very real need to pay rent and put food on the table. It is impossible to become an accomplished painter, composer, or novelist without spending time experimenting, making false starts, absorbing criticism, reading, talking, and moping about the house. All this time must be purchased, one way or another. Is the history of art and ideas just a history of rich kids?
The answer, of course, is no. William Carlos Williams was a family doctor. Franz Kafka was an insurance man, as were Charles Ives and Wallace Stevens. Grace Hartigan temped. James Joyce mooched off his brother; Christopher Isherwood ingratiated himself with a wealthy uncle. Virginia Woolf and Louisa May Alcott were determined to make their writing pay no matter what. And their material circumstances had an impact on all of their creative outputs.
From family money to jobs to colorful schemes, Mason Currey, author of the acclaimed Daily Rituals, explores both the well-worn and unlikely paths forward for the up-and-coming artist. Making Art and Making a Living is an entertaining and thought-provoking examination of the collision of creative ambitions with real-world necessities and of the messy, glorious, torturous compromises that gifted individuals have patched together when facing the eternal dilemma of an artistic life.
- GenresArt
240 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication March 31, 2026
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About the author
Mason Currey
6 books327 followersMason Currey is a writer and editor living in Los Angeles. His first book, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, was published by Knopf in 2013 and has been translated into 17 languages. A sequel, Daily Rituals: Women at Work, came out in 2019. He also writes a free newsletter on routines, rituals, and wriggling through a creative life.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 30, 2025
Making Art and Making a Living by Mason Currey is a delightful romp through the history of artists and how they supported themselves while creating their paintings, photographs, poetry, novels, music, and more. I thoroughly enjoyed it and plan to look for other books by Currie.
December 11, 2025
A lively exploration of how artists throughout history managed to support themselves while crafting their paintings, photographs, poetry, novels, music, and beyond.
Thank you Mason Currey, Net Galley and Celadon Books for the arc. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
Thank you Mason Currey, Net Galley and Celadon Books for the arc. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews