Try free for 30 days

  • Art & Fear

  • Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
  • By: David Bayles, Ted Orland
  • Narrated by: Arthur Morey
  • Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (76 ratings)

A 30-day trial plus your first audiobook free.
1 credit/month after trial—to buy any title you like, yours to keep.
Listen all you want to a selection of thousands of Audible Originals, audiobooks and podcasts.
$16.45 a month after 30 day trial. Cancel anytime.
Art & Fear cover art

Art & Fear

By: David Bayles, Ted Orland
Narrated by: Arthur Morey
Free with 30-day trial

$16.45/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $16.99

Buy Now for $16.99

Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.

Publisher's Summary

What is your art really about? Where is it going? What stands in the way of getting it there? These are questions that matter, questions that recur at each stage of artistic development - and they are the source for this volume of wonderfully incisive commentary.

Art & Fear explores the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way. This is a book about what it feels like to sit in your studio or classroom, at your wheel or keyboard, easel or camera, trying to do the work you need to do. It is about committing your future to your own hands, placing free will above predestination, choice above chance. It is about finding your own work.

©1993 David Bayles and Ted Orland (P)2012 Tantor

More from the same

What listeners say about Art & Fear

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    59
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    35
  • 4 Stars
    16
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    43
  • 4 Stars
    12
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A must for every artist!!

Recommend to me by Alyssa Monks, this book clearly states what I can never seem to express!
Life and soul affirming!! Thank you!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Art & Fear

My average ratings is subjective. I know ratings always are but this is a well written book with a lot of truth but I found it so dry – partly in the narrating. Regardless it could use a little more humour. It certainly didn’t make me want to write more songs and pick my paint brush again and keep putting work out despite my putting out a good looking selfie that took a second getting far more attention than something I worked on for days or months or years; and keep working against the twin foes of indifference and internal and perceived external criticism until periods of eventual paralysis. It did however explain all this fear and dissatisfaction very well - why I and so many others are still paying off an education that made us lose all interest in creating Art, associating it with poverty and disrespect and to be associated with a post modernist paradigm you might have no interest in encouraging.
May I direct listeners to Steven Pressfield’s – The War of Art – either as a companion or an alternative if you picked up Art & Fear for the same reasons I did, or just keep chipping away till you find your voice again.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Understanding and Doubt

This book is a true awakening for any artist. A recognition of why we would stop making what we want to make, and logic to drive us to continue making it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

loved it but too short

the book was interesting but too short for the subject he was talking about,the book goes on to talk about the struggles of being an artist

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.