Customer Reviews

Turn: The Journal of an Artist

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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.

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.