Turn: The Journal of an Artist [Paperback]

Anne Truitt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 3, 1987

The second journal of an artist by "an extraordinary woman: sensitive, intelligent, perceptive"--Doris Grumbach.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Truitt's guilt over her husband's suicide, her subsequent bitterness and concern about being true to herself as a painter, the demands of parenting and acute observations on nature are interwoven in this sensitive journal. A sequel to Daybook, this also records the challenges she faced as acting director of an artists' colony. For the author, reality is something we must invent for ourselves, and our precarious hold on it hinges on the ability to invest our activities with love. As her children grow into their 20s, she joins with them in a mutual effort at self-understanding, which helps liberate her from the past. She decodes ciphers in nature: a nesting bird, a pale, sickle moon on Thanksgiving Day dawn renew hope. Her notes on travels from Paris to Padua to Venice will be of special interest to artists and art students. Truitt is a professor of art at the Univ. of Maryland.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Daybook ( LJ 9/15/82), Truitt's journal of the years 1974 to 1980, took a hard look at her growth as a sculptor while casting a soft focus on events. Turn has more narrative force, chronicling deaths, divorces, European travel, and work. Truitt has less to say about her art but meditates gracefully upon aging, home life, and her adult children. Grown confident with self-sufficiency and success, she seeks to discover the roots of her strength in childhood and turns an even gaze on painful memories. Daybook felt both tentative and polished, frequently referring to itself. Turn is both surer and more episodic but equally moving. For large public libraries and specialized collections. Christine M. Hill, Free Lib. of Philadelphia
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 214 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); First Edition. first pb edition (November 3, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140092498
• ISBN-13: 978-0140092493
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,057,080 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book., December 8, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Turn: The Journal of an Artist (Paperback)

This is one of my very favorite books. Anne Truitt is an artist who has led a full life as a mother and wife as well as achieving a degree of artistic fame. The first woman ever to show solo in the Whitney Museum, she has turned her mind to writing, to ouy great benefit. A joy to read.

4.0 out of 5 stars Reflections of life and art, October 17, 2010

By 

Fran Milsop - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Turn: The Journal of an Artist (Paperback)

Anne Truitt is a very reflexive thinker and writer. Both of her books, "Turn: The Journey of An Artist" and "Daybook: The Journal of An Artist," are thoughtful, transparent and provocative books. When I say 'provocative,' I mean they push the reader to reflect on their own circumstances or past experiences and reflect on their outcomes or differences. Some of the things Ms. Truitt began to experience as she aged confirmed,and affirmed, what I have been going through as I attempt to continue to produce art. I was glad to read I was not the only one having to grapple with the same questions concerning energy, productivity, and the undeniable and inevitable journey towards the end of my life. Truitt never whines about these moments of insight and revelation. Instead, she incorporates them and moves on to her studio. This book is probably not for someone just starting out in their art career but rather for someone who has been on the path of creating art for a while and who has wrestled with questions about creativity, faith, success, failure, and what it means to be an artist over the long haul. I highly recommend both of these contemplative and insightful books...maybe more for women artists then men - only because she reflects on raising children, being a women who must come to terms with the 'inevitable challenge of death,' being a female artist, and what it meant to be the divorced wife of a husband who committed suicide. Although Ms. Truitt passed away in 2004, her two books leave a very special legacy behind for many to enjoy.