Is the all-encompassing quest to become a self-sustaining artist worth the sacrifices it often requires?
A writer questioning her own choices at mid-life talks with women artists around the world about the gifts, costs, and redemptive power of pursuing a creative life
Most artists -male or female - are neither famous nor wealthy. But women artists face particular pressure to give up their artistic goals-from societal disapproval against such "selfishness," to the pressure (or desire) for children and economic stability. Throughout her 20s and 30s, Stephanie Elizondo Griest could not help worrying if constantly prioritizing her writing over everything else was leading her to fulfillment or regret. After a break-up and serious health crisis the year she turned 40, she decided to turn to other women artists for their perspectives on that perennial question: is art enough?
Art Above Everything introduces us to women 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 with artists in Rwanda, Romania, Qatar, Iceland, Mexico and New Zealand, as well as the United States.
As a collective, these artists speak dozens of languages and worship a spectrum of faiths, yet their need to create in the face of economic hardship, misogyny, sexual violence, and family ostracization are 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.
