- Most Popular Audiobooks
- New Audiobooks
- Kids Audiobooks
- Teen Audiobooks
- See all audiobooks collections
Art Above Everything
One Woman's Global Exploration of the Joys and Torments of a Creative Life
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
Is the all-encompassing quest to become a self-sustaining artist worth the sacrifices it often requires? Throughout her 20s and 30s, Stephanie Elizondo Griest could not help worrying if constantly prioritizing her writing over everything else—from postponing children to living nomadically to save on rent—was leading her to fulfillment or regret. After a break-up and serious health crisis in her early 40s, she decided to turn to other women artists for their perspectives on that perennial question: is art enough?
Art Above Everything introduces us to legendary writers, visual artists, dancers, and musicians across the globe, who talk intimately about their art, what it requires, what it gifts them, and what it costs them. Opening in a classical Indian dance village, Elizondo Griest goes on to meet 100+ artists in Rwanda, Romania, Qatar, Iceland, Mexico, New Zealand, Cuba, and the United States. She discovers artists from Rwandan playwright Hope Azeda, who navigated ethnic tensions as she attempted to bring about reconciliation through theater in the aftermath of genocide; to Romanian painter Florica Prevenda, who got assigned to a provincial factory during Ceaușescu’s dictatorship but never relinquished her brushes.
Art is inheritance, dissent, devotion, revenge, celebration, and more. Yet though each artist’s relationship to their craft is different, their need to create in the face of economic hardship, misogyny, sexual violence, and family ostracization is wholly akin.
Bold and inspiring, Art Above Everything never pretends that the artist’s path is easy—but it illuminates the infinite ways we can wield creativity as a vitalizing force.
-
Creators
-
Publisher
-
Release date
June 10, 2025 -
Formats
-
Kindle Book
-
OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780807020425
-
EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780807020425
- File size: 1278 KB
-
-
Accessibility
The publisher provides the following statement about the accessibility of the EPUB file supplied to OverDrive. Experiences may vary across reading systems. After borrowing the book, you may download the EPUB files to read in another reading system.
Ways Of Reading
No information about appearance modifiability is available.
Not all of the content will be readable as read aloud speech or dynamic braille.
Conformance
No information is available.
Hazards
The presence of hazards is unknown.
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
May 1, 2025
In this travel guide along the artist's path, Elizondo Griest takes readers on a global tour of creative struggle and transcendence, from a devout dance collective in India to an opulent mall in Qatar. Driving this vehicle is the question: is art enough? For Elizondo Griest, after speaking with 70 women in 12 countries, the answer is always yes--and that it's impossible to pursue art without sacrifice. For all artists, there is the expense of "an infinity of hours" and, for most, money. For women, there are additional costs (like delaying children), which Elizondo Griest sensitively recalls from her own life and the lives of fellow artists. No matter their place, these women find freedom through their work. They tell stories and paint and belly dance through loneliness, pain, and censorship. Readers may wish they'd had this guide at the start of their own journeys, but it's never too late to be reminded that yes, the road is impossible, and no, you're not on it alone. A new kind of travel writing.COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
-