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ladybrewsalot's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.25
A memoir-like of Anne Truitt’s work in art, life, and motherhood.
casskrug's review against another edition
3.0
this is like journal of a solitude, but for visual artists. anne truitt was a sculptor and painter, and in her journal she is grappling with her career progression, aging, family life, and the artistic process.
the latter part of the book where she discusses her children becoming adults with their own lives and her struggle to separate her identity as a mother from her identity as an artist was really thought provoking. a lot of books i read deal with a younger woman deciding whether or not to have children, so the perspective of a woman in her 50s contemplating the “second birth” of her children into adulthood was a fresh perspective. i especially loved her musings on her daughters becoming mothers. made me think about my own family’s dynamics as my sister and i are getting older and going out on our own.
i enjoyed the way she moved backwards in time to different episodes from her past, and the way she contemplated the future. she was very realistic and upfront about her financial struggles, even as an established, exhibiting artist.
my reading experience of this wasn’t great but that’s on me - i was having a hard time focusing and staying awake while reading it, not because it was bad, but because i was personally just exhausted. however, i struggled with this from a sentence structure standpoint occasionally. not sure if it was just the style of the time but i had difficulty following her train of thought in certain sentences and found myself rereading sentences often to try and comprehend what she meant.
the latter part of the book where she discusses her children becoming adults with their own lives and her struggle to separate her identity as a mother from her identity as an artist was really thought provoking. a lot of books i read deal with a younger woman deciding whether or not to have children, so the perspective of a woman in her 50s contemplating the “second birth” of her children into adulthood was a fresh perspective. i especially loved her musings on her daughters becoming mothers. made me think about my own family’s dynamics as my sister and i are getting older and going out on our own.
i enjoyed the way she moved backwards in time to different episodes from her past, and the way she contemplated the future. she was very realistic and upfront about her financial struggles, even as an established, exhibiting artist.
my reading experience of this wasn’t great but that’s on me - i was having a hard time focusing and staying awake while reading it, not because it was bad, but because i was personally just exhausted. however, i struggled with this from a sentence structure standpoint occasionally. not sure if it was just the style of the time but i had difficulty following her train of thought in certain sentences and found myself rereading sentences often to try and comprehend what she meant.
bribeatris's review against another edition
4.0
On the back of my old ratty copy of Daybook: The Journal of an Artist by Anne Truitt I wrote, “What comes to mind when I read this is gentle. Despite its harsh and jarring realities, it feels gentle.” I don’t know when I wrote that, nor do I remember writing it but as I finished the book and found that page, I realized it was true. Anne Truitt was a sculptor and a mother and her journal consisted of entries on how to be an artist and a mother, how to be an artist at all, what it means to be an artist, to work with your hands, to create something outside of yourself that holds your soul. The taxing, laboring, energizing, rewarding thing of being an artist. My heart got really soft when she spoke about being a mother, and growing old and growing apart from her children, and what it means to be an artist and a mother, and how they can feel like two different identities, and sometimes she thinks the child needs more than what the artist can give. And then she also writes about what it’s like to be a grandmother, to grow old while someone brand new is coming into earth. She said, “In some similar way, as peacefully as I can, I must reduce my territory in the lives of these people most dear to me in the world.” I thought of my mother and all our mothers, that inevitable reducing they must do as the children expand and grow on their own. How hard that must be, how many tears they must have to swallow. For some reason we regard mothers as superhuman figures who don't have emotions, maybe we regard a lot of people that way, and when she wrote the simple sentence, “My feelings were hurt.” I felt it profoundly. Simple. But despite any hurt feelings, and the demands of motherhood she had so much drive and ambition, and desire to always pursue her craft. “If I wish to be responsible to myself, and I do, I have to pursue my aspirations.” She reminds us that we must remain independent to survive, that doesn’t mean isolation but when everyone is gone for whatever reason we have to be able to move on, to work, to create, to do something with our hands, to live.
kararoge's review against another edition
5.0
I love reading artists’ and writers’ journals. This one is a keeper.
etches's review against another edition
4.0
Such a lovely book! One of Truitt's main struggles is the struggle between competing roles in her life: her role as mother and her role as artist. She is positively lyrical when talking about that tension and how she navigated it on a daily basis. I listened to the audio version of this, which was delightfully narrated by Truitt herself, but I've decided I need to get myself a print copy because this is a book I'll read again for sure.