Lives of the Artists

Simona Fedele

In 1550, Italian painter and architect Giorgio Vasari published Lives of the Artists, or Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. His early scholarship in artist biography heralded a tradition in documenting the lives of artists, and creating an “art history.”

Escape into Life would like to begin another tradition in documenting the lives of artists, except this time, from the artists’ own words.

We invite artists to tell their story.

We realize that many artists may want to tell their story but do not know where to begin. So we’ve created some prompts to help you get started:

1. What kinds of artworks do you create, and what motivates you to create?

2. How did you discover your talent and passion for art?

3. How did you develop your skills, for example, with education, or mentors?

4. Have you had (do you have) other jobs and careers as well as being an artist?

5. Do you have favorite techniques, or methods of working and how do these influence your artworks?

6. What is it like to work in your studio? What’s your typical day of art-making?

Your artist story does not need to be comprehensive; meaning, you don’t need to tell us your life story. If you just explored one aspect of your life as an artist that would be wonderful, allowing us a glimpse into your creative world.

Along with your artist story, we will show several samples of your work.

If you are interested in participating in the Escape into Life Lives of the Artists project, please send your draft to escapeintolife (AT) yahoo (DOT) com. The header of your email should read, “Lives of the Artists.”

There is no deadline for this project; it is ongoing. We hope to fill our online arts journal with these stories continually.

The maximum number of pages that will be accepted is two-three Word Document pages, or roughly 1000 words.

Please share this project with artists who may be interested in telling their stories.

You can find the latest published autobiographies for Lives of the Artists here.