In a career that has spanned four decades and three continents, Denise Green has bridged the tricky distance between artist and critic, an accomplishment captured in Denise Green: An Artist’s Odyssey. Combining her life story with observations of leading figures in the art world, the book is at once a window on artistic theory and practice and a virtual how-to for aspiring artists.

Green’s own story begins in Brisbane and moves through her subsequent years of training in Paris during the revolutionary events of 1968. She goes on to describe her apprenticeship as a painter in New York’s Soho, where she became embroiled in the debates dominating the art world.

Complementing Green’s account are the contributions of noted artists, art historians, critics, and curators like Ingrid Periz, Richard Kalina, Frances Lindsay, Anthony Bond, Peter Timms, Roland Mönig, Christof Trepesch, and Lilly Wei, as well as one of the most prominent collectors in Australia, Kerry Stokes. From the interplay of these perspectives, a rare picture emerges of art as it is made, understood, and lived.