I decided at the age of sixteen that I wanted to devote my life to creating works that would serve humanity for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years. It's unthinkably ambitious, but I undertake it nevertheless. The music I've composed and performed, aired on National Public Radio (NPR) and taught at Boston Conservatory, the artwork I’ve created and exhibited in New York, Miami, Las Vegas, and San Francisco, the writings I’ve drafted and had published, in journals, magazines, and books about art and artificial intelligence (AI)—all of it with the goal of making a meaningful, lasting contribution to Western Culture. The books in this list contain letters and interviews with the greats that inspire me most.
I've modeled my life after one of Van Gogh's life goals: making a meaningful contribution to Western Culture.
I've read his letters over and over again to try and understand how he did it. His passion and emotional resonance with his painting and with his brother, Theo, inspire me every time.
I don't want to make some of the mistakes he made with his life, and I want to value my own life as much as my own work, but his words offer me signposts for living.
"Written from the heart and without restraint, alive."-The New York Times
Vincent van Gogh, the great but tormented artist, bared his tortured yet ecstatic soul in his letters to his confidant and companion, his beloved brother Theo. These letters reveal the man behind such masterpieces as The Starry Night and The Bedroom-a desperate man whose quest for love became a flight into madness and for whom every day was a "fight for life."
Irving Stone, acclaimed author of Lust for Life and other remarkable biographic novels, has collected Vincent van Gogh's fascinating letters to Theo. Here we see the great…
Stravinsky inspires me to understand the nature of my own work.
His thoughts, like "Music theory is hindsight," offer me clear-eyed strategies for approaching my own creativity as personal, original thought.
In the interviews, he's a rather plain, droll man. I am reminded that being a flamboyant, flashy artist gives no assurances of originality in one's work.
Conversations with Igor Stravinsky is the first of the celebrated series of conversation books in which Stravinsky, prompted by Robert Craft, reviewed his long and remarkable life. The composer brings the Imperial Russia of his childhood vividly into focus, at the same time scanning what were at the time the brave new horizons of Boulez and Stockhausen with extraordinary acuity.
Stravinsky answers searching questions about his musical development and recalls his association with Diaghilev and the Russian Ballet. There are sympathetic and extraordinarily illuminating reminiscences of such composers as Debussy and Ravel ('the only musicians who immediately understood Le Sacre…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
I'm not sure how much of these interviews are profound truths about the foundations of Bacon's work and how much are clever marketing tying his work to art history, but I don't care.
I ate up these interviews like a starving dog. I believe that Bacon's work ties solidly to centuries of painting tradition and don't believe that verbal defense or explanation is necessary given the incontrovertible visual arguments Bacon has made already.
The extraordinarily revealing interviews with Francis Bacon conducted over a period of 25 years by the distinguished art critic David Sylvester amount to a unique statement by Bacon on his art and on art in general. In the book, a classic of its kind, Bacon considers the problems of realism and sheds new light on aspects of his life. With a rare and brilliant use of language, Bacon talks about his aims as a painter and ways in which he works, responding always with vivacity and candour to Sylvester's searching questions. Bacon's obsessive effort to record and re-create the human…
My respect for O'Keefe extends as much to her as a painter as it does as a businesswoman.
Climbing to the heights of public art education in Texas before moving to New Mexico and crowning her career inspires me to stay true to my own art while I make ends meet as cleverly as I can.
O'Keeffe proves to me that there's no shame in worldly success while you pursue timeless success.
In 1912, at age 24, Georgia O'Keeffe boarded a train in Virginia and headed west, to the prairies of the Texas Panhandle, to take a position as art teacher for the newly organized Amarillo Public Schools. Subsequently she would join the faculty at what was then West Texas State Normal College (now West Texas A&M University). Already a thoroughly independent-minded woman, she maintained an active correspondence with her future husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz, and other friends back east during the years she lived in Texas.
Amy Von Lintel brings to readers the collected O'Keeffe correspondence and added commentary and analysis,…
An inspiring, hilarious, and much-needed approach to addiction and self-acceptance,
You’re Doing Great! debunks the myth that alcohol washes away the pain; explains the toll alcohol takes on our emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being; illustrates the steps to deal with our problems head-on; exposes the practices used…
Beethoven's letters remind me that it's ok to be a simple man.
Life doesn't need to be overanalyzed, as one finds in Freud's letters. Passion, dedication, and focus are all that's necessary. I looked in his writing for the complexity of lifestyle and expression of humanity that I find within his sonatas and symphonies. It wasn't there.
Ludwig was a brilliant composer without being a brilliant man, and in that thought I find solace.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), the protagonist of freedom for music, disentangled music from the control of the ruling class. In publishing his music and writing for the rising classes, Beethoven claimed freedom and expressed the emotions of the new rulers, the artists. The Eroica, Fidelio, and the piano works express the emotions of the new rulers — the intense love, the need for companionship of people, the forces that conspired to defeat the artist, and the strength and superiority of the artist in overcoming the weaknesses. The letters of Beethoven are the principal nonmusical expression of his personality in its…
Genius: The Owner's Manual by Daniel Hermes explores the development of achievement and the pursuit of meaningful work and life. Drawing on history, psychology, creativity research, biographies, and the writings of influential creators, the book examines how extraordinary people develop their abilities, solve difficult problems, build enduring careers, and contribute lasting ideas.
Covering the personal, creative, and public dimensions of genius, the book addresses the habits, decisions, relationships, and environments that shape achievement across the arts, sciences, business, and public service. It presents a framework for understanding how talent is developed, how ambition can be directed toward meaningful goals, and how creative lives can be sustained over time.
The four performance works documented in this book were each built through advance planning and spontaneous decisions, in response to the opportunities and constraints I anticipated and experiences in the process of composition. Each depends on live improvisation to verbalize content, themes, and manner throughout the performance itself.
Winner of the Robert F. Lucid Award for Mailer Studies.
Celebrating Mailer's centenary and the seventy-fifth publication of The Naked and the Dead, the book illustrates how Mailer remains a provocative presence in American letters.
From the debates of the nation's founders, to the revolutionary traditions of western romanticism,…
