About — Art Life [Confidential]

Hey what's up!

I'm Traci L. Turner, host of Art Life Confidential and an artist currently living in Reno, NV. If you're an artist or another creative type, you may have heard about or seen the movie, Art School Confidential. The film's satire, aimed at the collegiate level of art education, showed its protagonist's decline into desperation as he became increasingly disillusioned by the fine art world. The humor still lives on as inside jokes between my friends and me throughout adulthood. If you haven't seen that quirky classic, you should! It was the inspiration for the title of this podcast. As fun as the movie was, it mainly focused on the classroom aspect of the art world. Most artists know that that's only the prequel to the real journey.

When I decided to become serious about building an art career, I had no idea of where the hell to start. It was a startling realization! I soon learned that many other artists felt the same way. In some cases, the uncertainty crippled them enough to allow their attentions to be swayed away from pursuing art altogether. A common opinion amongst Creatives is that the curriculum in art school leaned heavily on teaching technical skills, and a lot of artists exit feeling as if they lacked the social and business tools necessary to make their mark in the art world. Is the secret to success only for the elite and the chosen ones? Of course not. So how can the rest of us carve our own piece of the pie? That’s the thought that helped me start Art Life Confidential.

This podcast is the result of my strong interest in providing help and insight to other Creatives who are also trying to figure it all out. Art Life Confidential is a way for me to build a casual resource for Creatives and offer working artists a platform to share their art, their experiences and philosophies. Get an inside look into how today's wave of artists have been able to prioritize their craft and forge their own paths.

If you'd like to check in on the progress of my own artistic pursuits outside of Art Life Confidential, feel free to follow me on these spaces:

Photo taken at the Torpedo Factory, in the art studio of Pauline Siple.