State Of The Arts

If California is a state of mind, Barbara Isenberg's interviews with more than fifty of California's prominent painters, writers, composers, architects, directors, and performers help explain why. They include Dave Brubeck, Joan Didion, Clint Eastwood, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Frank Gehry, David Hockney, Randy Newman, Maxine Hong Kingston, Luis Valdez, Larry Gelbart, Matt Groening, Robert Graham, Carol Burnett, Michael Tilson Thomas, and many others. Some were born in California; others came from afar for its light, space, natural beauty, and opportunity. In these conversations, they talk about how they became artists and how living in California influences their work. They offer a kaleidoscopic view of the many ways that environment affects and nurtures the creative process.

If California is a state of mind, Barbara Isenberg's interviews with more than fifty of California's prominent painters, writers, composers, architects, directors, and performers help explain why. I find great delight in reading this book, and in the richness and contributions its heroes have made in life. —Studs Terkel

Naea News

These diverse firsthand stories...make great reading.

Barbara Isenberg has been writing about the arts for the Los Angeles Times since 1976 and is a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Author of the critically acclaimed Making It Big: The Diary of a Broadway Musical, she has received a Distinguished Artists Award from the Los Angeles Music Center and has been a Getty Visiting Scholar. She lives in Los Angeles where she is associate director of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities at the University of Southern Califorina.