"A comprehensive, insightful, and articulate guide for everyone who has ever attempted to make art." --San Francisco Chronicle

An Absorbing Errand uses stories of artist's lives, personal anecdotes, and insights from the author's work as a psychotherapist to examine the psychological obstacles that prevent people from staying with, and relishing, the process of art-making. Each chapter is devoted to a problem intrinsic to the creative process and illustrates how these very obstacles, once understood, can become prime sources of the energy that actually fuels the mastery of art-making. Ultimately, An Absorbing Errand provides a philosophical, historical, and analytical look at the creative impulse and how certain artists from a wide field mastered their craft. From Julia Child to Charlie Chaplin to Lady Gaga, famous painters to established writers, Smith shows us how each overcame the obstacles they faced in the pursuit of their creative visions.