Friday, April 3, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Skylight Books, Los Angeles
 CLICK HERE TO RSVP _**RSVP is recommended but not required. Entry and seating are first-come, first-served. RSVPs do not guarantee entry to a full event.**_ **_Daily Rituals_ author Mason Currey weaves together delightful, illuminating stories and reflections about how famous artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers throughout history have managed to successfully (or not) support a creative life.** Many of us are drawn to a life in the arts but daunted by how to balance that ambition with the very real need to pay rent and put food on the table. It is impossible to become an accomplished painter, composer, or novelist without spending time experimenting, making false starts, absorbing criticism, reading, talking, and moping about the house. All this time must be purchased, one way or another. Is the history of art and ideas just a history of rich kids? The answer, of course, is no. William Carlos Williams was a family doctor. Franz Kafka was an insurance man, as were Charles Ives and Wallace Stevens. Grace Hartigan temped. James Joyce mooched off his brother; Christopher Isherwood ingratiated himself with a wealthy uncle. Virginia Woolf and Louisa May Alcott were determined to make their writing pay no matter what. And their material circumstances had an impact on all of their creative outputs. From family money to jobs to colorful schemes, Mason Currey, author of the acclaimed _Daily Rituals_, explores both the well-worn and unlikely paths forward for the up-and-coming artist_. Making Art and Making a Living_ is an entertaining and thought-provoking examination of the collision of creative ambitions with real-world necessities and of the messy, glorious, torturous compromises that gifted individuals have patched together when facing the eternal dilemma of an artistic life. **Mason Currey** is the author of the _Daily Rituals_ books—_Daily Rituals: How Artists Work_ and _Daily Rituals: Women at Work_—featuring brief profiles of the day-to-day work habits of more than three hundred brilliant minds. He has worked as the managing editor of _Metropolis_, the executive editor of _Print_, and a senior editor at _Core77_, and his freelance writing has appeared in _The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic,_ and _Slate_. Currey lives in Los Angeles and writes _Subtle Maneuvers_, a twice-monthly newsletter on the creative process. **Ross Simonini** is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and musician. He has held solo presentations of his work at the Sharjah Biennial (UAE), Francois Ghebaly (NYC), anonymous gallery (NYC), Et Al (SF), SHRINE (LA), suns.works (Zurich), Shoot the Lobster (LU), and Human Resources (LA). His novel, The Book of Formation (2018, Melville House) chronicles the rise of a fictional philosophical movement. He releases music under his own name and his next album, Themes releases with Ulyssa records in June. He has performed at Performa, Andy Warhol Museum, and the Brooklyn Museum. He served as the interviews editor at The Believer from 2007 — 2020, where he is now a contributing editor. His essays and dialogues appear in the New York Times, The Paris Review, and many monographs. He has created podcasts for ArtReview, SFMOMA, and KCRW. As an adjunct professor, he has taught seminars on experimental process, writing, art, sound, and dialogue at Columbia University, CCA, Stanford, and UCLA.