“May your child be an artist” doesn’t sound like a curse but the struggles of being an artist are shown in this memoir by a retired art professor who illustrates how a creative life in sculpture started early and progressed to became a calling. College art curriculum stories lead to starting a pottery in a converted barn, deciding to hand build a house, sculpture to live in of course, all while being married to another artist and raising three great children is full of detail documenting the wife for sainthood and illustrates what the children say about their youth as being raised by artists; how normal is it to build large sculpture pieces in a living room while the house is still being built? Retirement has brought time to read and the book ends with suggested readings that developed into a list of absurdities, a review of contemporary American culture that steps on a lot of toes.