9 Books Every Artist Should Read

Before we get to today’s post:

Side Quest Summer Week One is now LIVE! See what I made here.

I grew up with two CPAs as parents.

I’ve wanted to be an artist since I was eight.

I always felt most comfortable in my own skin when I was creating, and for a long time I thought everyone felt that way. Didn’t every high school sophomore want to spend their Friday nights Mod Podging cut-out flowers onto painted paper? They did not.

My parents have been wildly supportive of me, but a career in art wasn’t always the vision. I think their practical line of work shaped the way I approach my own creative life. I needed a way to make it make sense.

I had an insatiable drive to learn how other artists made their businesses work, in hopes that I could make mine work too. I became fascinated by the business of art: how people built sustainable careers, talked about their work, found collectors, and supported themselves through creativity.

There’s a pervasive stereotype that artists are disorganized, out of touch, overly indulgent in their emotions, egotistical, we’ve all heard it. I think that stereotype is part of why I spent so much time trying to reconcile these two worlds. On the surface, art as a career doesn’t always make sense. Even though I know that isn’t true, I still feel an intense pressure to be both creatively fulfilled and commercially successful.

That is where my continual desire for more information serves us all! I’ve read nearly every Art / Business book there is. If I were teaching a college capstone course called How to Be an Artist in 2026, this would be my syllabus.

We’ll cover the historical context of working artists, a little bit of personal growth, building studio systems, how to talk about your art, and how to write about your art.

Let’s dig in.

The 9 books to live by as an artist, plus 2 extra credit.