Art Work by Sally Mann

February 20, 2026

Artwork

For a brief moment, I could not remember the year. 2026 – in case anyone else forgot.

I’d like to say that I have been productive, but it’s been quite a month or so. I am teaching one class, and it’s been very slow. Now that I have taught the course once, the repeated course almost runs itself. I don’t feel the pressure of planning, prepping, grading, or revising, like I did last semester.

Art Work

I picked up Sally Mann’s Art Work (Amazon link). It’s supposed to be a book for young(er) artists who want to get insight into the way Mann worked her way up as an artist.

When I read Hold Still (Amazon link), I had just started my own artistic journey as a young mother interested in art because of Mann’s photo of her daughter holding a candy cigarette. I remember that candy cigarette because I, too, had played/eaten that same pack myself as a kid.

It’s been a ten-year journey for Mann to write her second book.

It’s been a ten-yearish journey for me to figure out if or how to continue with making art work or making artwork. Grammarly wants to correct my spelling here, but I think it’s important to note that art is work. Art can be work. Artwork is the product of the thing you make.

I usually take notes of specific quotes in the book as I read, but sometimes, it feels like I am not enjoying the process of reading. Thus, I wanted to read Mann’s book for reading pleasure without the internal pressure of taking notes.

However, I could not help myself. Here’s a quote I want to remember:

Somehow, despite all the distractions and the despair, art gets made; words form on the page like blood on the forehead.* Because it has to. And because, in fact, it’s you who has to make it.” (pg. 86)

This quote came out of her Distraction chapter. (*Also, to understand her “blood to forehead” quote, you need to have read the preceding chapter or two.)

Distraction

I’ve been in my own world of distraction. Unsure of my future path, I lie in wait. But let’s be honest, waiting sucks. Being still. But then making new moves in hopes to carve a new path…I am not sure of the path to take, but then the paths are closed for the moment, so I wait at the crossroads until something opens.

And here’s another:

“Artists really get down to the business of making their art when it is more painful to not make it than to make it.” (pg. 91)
“Artists have regular lives doing regular, tedious things that take us away from our art, but those things also serve as reminders of how very much we want, and need, our creative life.” (pg. 92)
“Inactivity isn’t failure; like an athlete, your artistic muscles need time for recovery; repose is restorative. Paradoxically, not making art can teach you as much as making it; and if nothing else, it fills the reservoir of desire.” (pg. 92)

D*&n you, Sally Mann

What the heck?

I wanted to just sit back and read your book.

I was confused by your crazy story about a couple who had converted your rental property into a meth lab. What was the point of your story? Then you bring the point home….

“So, sit back and observe…. Observation and experience, including trashed trailers, are the cornerstones of good art. Regroup. Remember. Dream a little. Feel. Volunteer. Cement down a few more cinder blocks in the character edifice…. Practice your craft…Over and over.. Do all this so you will be prepared to come roaring back when you have something unignorable and irrepressable to say. And you will.” (pg. 93)

Why must you share this wisdom?

Let’s Finish the Book

Update: March 1, 2026

Of course, the loan on Mann’s book was overdue. And true to form, I force myself to finish the book, so that I can return the book for the next patron.

But I have to say that it was a quick read filled with nuggets, which required me to go back and type these quotes for later.

Chapter 6 – Organize

Quote from William Wharton in the Washington Post:

“I say to a lot of people, the secret to a good life is: find something you really like to do. Find out if you’re good at it. If you are, work hard to become very good at it. Then hope you can find someone to pay you to do it. But almost everybody does it the other way. They look for a job, and then they hope to get good at it, then they hope to learn to like it.” (105)

“We make art because we have to – if you’re not sure whether you are an artist, then you probably aren’t, and you should look elsewhere. There are far easier ways to earn a living.” (103)

“If you’re going to imitate me, or steal, you’d damn well better do an irreproachable and transcendent version that is entirely your vision or voice. As somebody once said, you can be a great gardener, bringing in piles of produce, but it does no good if you’re a lousy chef. But then, I guess that’s the crux of the argument throughout this book: Make the best work you can make. Make it uniquely yours. Make a lot of it, and you will know what yours is supposed to look like.” (129)

Here are the images Mann referred to:

Chapter 7 – A Thousand Ways

Mann talks about how you will “themes and fascinations in all forms of art.” (135)

Mann implores artists to “git’er done.” Know when to call the project complete and not to obsess over perfection. (136)

Quote by Ted (136), below:

BK: I don’t want to speculate what Mann thought of the Jan 6^th riots, but here’s a subtle, yet not so subtle quote in her book:

“If you say the election was stolen and you saw the voting boxes in the dumpster and repeat it enough times, soon you will lay down your life to defend your memory of this fabrication.” (138)

BK: To put the quote in context, she delves into the subject of memory and how it can get distorted and remembered in different ways, even from one person’s perspective to another person’s, such as her siblings’ memories and hers of the same moment.

“There’s not a lot we can do to short-circuit this process – we discover who we are by being who we are and making what we make. Our past is made up of our infinite present, a palimpsest onto which each layer softly gathers; shifting, translucent, and mutable.” 138

Chapter 8 – Why You Say Yes

This chapter “summarizes how misguided it is to say no when saying yes could make your artistic or financial life a lot better and enlarge your horizons in unanticipated ways….it has nothing to do with your convictions; it has to do with your fear.” 139

Chapter 9 – monkey on a road trip

The whole chapter – students can read about Mann’s process and the process to find their artist voice.

Chapter 10 – Your Darlings

Page 203 – You do care as an artist

“Does it matter that you now know it can take countless tries to achieve art that appears so self-assured as to be inevitable, that does art’s hard work but appears unfazed by the effort? Of course it doesn’t: Get to work!” (221)
“You will edit out work out because you think you know where the work should be going. But your perspective changes… the very things you liked before are the things you don’t like anymore. Time does tell, but you have to hang around to hear what it says, even if it says you’re a dumbass.” (222)

Chapter 11 – Challenging work

Chapter 12 – Whip, Then Gift

Chapters on luck, organization, technique, words (on paper), patience, tenacity, risk-taking, moral questioning, finding your story, character building suffering…final chapter, chapter 12 on “talent.”

Spoiler Alert: DO NOT READ PAST THIS LINE:

“I encourage you to defy that perception, to attach your zero, which is where we all start, to the limitless integer of your creativity, your drive, your accumulated skills, your tenacity, and your passion.” Your sincere emotions matter, and not just to you. It is not sentimental or romantic to want to share your feelings. Or, maybe it is, but do it anyway; the worst that can happen is that you invite the condescension of a supposedly sophisticated audience. Be true. …And if you’re lucky, when that work is released, it will find untingled nerve endings out in the world and lustily tingle them, manifesting indelible truths in which someone will one day find beauty. That is our job.” (260-261)