Old In Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over Kindle Edition

I was pleased to get this book because I started the same journey at 55, except I wasn't an academic. I give it 4 stars because sometimes the anecdotes seem overdone as if she is trying too hard to be interesting, adding, for example, descriptions of the people, scenes and interactions during her commute which don't elucidate her life. Her personal story is endearing and powerful enough as it is. Perhaps the author doesn't entirely believe readers will take her seriously. But at last, the flow of the writing became more natural and I really got into it. I can really relate to the age bias she describes. Her experience at RISD was enlightening. She manages to convey all the feelings one goes through on this path as the journey evolves. Becoming an artist is a long, long process of becoming self-reliant and confident in your goal. The journey is yours, and yours alone. Eventually, you can develop a healthy boundary between yourself and other people, find self-acceptance, and accept others as they are. I believe no one can prescribe an age limit for emerging artists or writers. There are no rules in creative freedom. This book is totally worth it, especially if you want to be creative. Go for it!

Painter's "Old in Art School" is many things, not the least of which is filled with joy. Joy in painting, creating, learning, and life itself. It's also wise, sometimes savage in its takedowns, even more its self-assessments, and sometimes very funny in its closely rendered and deeply considered examinations of race and gender and social class and age in America and the Art World, and it is unabashedly expressive of the wonders of New Jersey. Painter's voice rings out with exuberant, vivid observation and cool analysis. She tells the reader much about higher learning, the nature of art school and of the professional art world (not all of it pretty), making her book a great companion to Sarah Thornton's 2009, "Seven Days in the Art World". Painter also points her reader to a great many black and/or women artists. The urge to stop and Google search the people she mentions is hard to resist. And because Painter writes about the near whole of her life in this memoir, she also renders in aching detail the final years of her parents' lives. Early in the book, Painter goes off on a brief rant as she recounts being at once an undergraduate student and a historian trying to complete, The History of White People. Even though I'd read her earlier book, somehow it hadn't occurred to me until she mentions this confluence that Painter was continuing to write masterful and influential histories while she was also studying painting and art history.

I was excited to dive into this book, hopeful for little nuggets of wisdom for my similar journey and perhaps a laugh or two in self reflection. Instead the reader encounters a self indulgent, needy author who repetitively presents an inventory of her resume ad nauseaum. She used this book to disparage other students all while trying to impress the reader by spewing supercilious comments and including very little about process or art school. This book had so much potential but was so disappointing.

Very interesting read, I am a retiree returning to art school after a different career. I am white but a woman. I dropped out of art school at the age of 20 after being taunted by male friends that there were no great woman artists so why bother.My father already insisted that I become a nurse which I did. I drew and painted whenever I could find spare time but with long absences since I found myself a single mom with 4 daughters.I too got the “ why are you not better at this?” “ isn’t it too late to travel down this road? “ when I returned to undergraduate classes. But I have greatly improved with love of the endeavor and lots of grit. The journey itself is definitely worth the struggle. Thanks for your insights.

This book interested me for its particulars on art, artists, nature of art, the art "world", and technical matters like colors and materials. But is was a lot more than this. It was a book about being old and female and black in the art and academic world. I could identify with the first two, and learned much about the third. As thought this were not enough, it is also a book about taking care of aging parents. This part of her book was not "pretty" and sometimes I found her responses to her father a bit cold and self absorbed. But isn't this how we always react when women don't drop everything to help family? I've been there too!! I was judging Painter as women are so often judged - and this got me thinking. The book is also beautifully produced, with lovely prints of Painter's work. I agree with other comments - I wish she had included some pictures of art she referenced beyond her own. There is no doubt this woman pays strong attention to her own self, but I am going to stand up and applaud. She earned it. I am grateful for her book, and will read others by her.

Nell Painter is my hero! She's intelligent, funny, a good and engaging scholar/writer and oh so courageous for going to art school after retirement. As usual, an excellent and erudite commentator on the intersection-ality of race, age, gender and politics and this time through her very personal experience!

I am old and I thought I'd like to compare my journey with hers, but I didn't. It rambled around and soon I didn't care If she even finished one semester of art school. I got bored and didn't finish it.

As an older person who seriously contemplated returning to school to earn a Fine Arts degree but decided against it, Painter’s experience is both a balm and an affirmation that I could be an Artist but not ‘An Artist’. And now I’m ok with that. A well written dissection of the challenges that come with age as well as an honest critique of the politics of the fine art industry.

Badly written and boring. Do not waste your money

Very inspiring for older persons and remarkably useful orientation to art school values..very honest, loved it