Last Artist Standing

Sharon Louden is an artist, educator, advocate for artists, consultant, community builder, and editor of the "Living and Sustaining a Creative Life" series of books. In addition, Sharon is a visionary leader with decades of experience as an educator in academia, community connector & catalyst fighting for underrepresented artists within established institutions. She is a collaborator who convenes initiatives with siloed stakeholders across the non-profit and business sectors. All of this work is considered a creative practice under the umbrella of a working artist.

'I recommend digging into the refreshingly candid essay collection Last Artist Standing, in which artists over 50 open up about the joys and struggles of making work amid personal, financial, and creative hurdles — a gem of a resource during a time when artists continue to defy the art world’s inequities.Is there anything more tedious than the myth of a linear artistic trajectory: “emerging” to “mid-career” to, at last, “established”? As artist and educator Sharon Louden points out in the introduction to Last Artist Standing, such mythology fuels so many outdated perceptions about artists’ relationships to success and age. This latest installment in her Living and Sustaining a Creative Life series rejects these fantasies, instead presenting something much more precious and honest — artists over 50 telling their own stories. The trove of intimate, personal essays is as varied as the voices of its contributors, among them Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Iñupiaq/Athabascan), Maren Hassinger, Colleen Coleman, and the late Audrey Flack. Each artist walks us down the path of their singular practices and lives, all bound together by the community they’ve cultivated along the way.'

• PREFACE – Sharon LoudenFOREWORD – Idelisse Malavé and Joanne Sandler, Two Old Bitches ESSAYSAudrey FlackBarry UnderwoodColleen ColemanEva LundsagerHoward McCalebbJames ClarkJaq ChartierJennifer Wen MaJohn SabrawJudith LindharesKatinka MannKay MillerMaren HassingerMartha WilsonMary Addison HackettMic Dino BoekelmannNancy GrossmanNayland BlakeNina KuoPatti WarashinaPrincess Simpson RashidRanu MukherjeeRomy AchituvSonia Baez-HernandezSonya Kelliher-CombsSqueak CarnwathSteve LockeSusan LussSusanna CoffeyTaraneh HemamiValerie Maynard CONCLUSIONRaheleh FilsoofiShervone Neckles ACKNOWLEDGMENTS