A Painter's Life

2010 Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist

2011 Oregon Book Award Finalist

2011 Next Generation Indie Book Award - Novella

“Reads like a journal…but unlike a journal, this sack of asides, hopes, press clippings, musings on friendships, work, other artists, critics, dealers, paint and the point of paint adds up to a life.” Regina Hackett, Another Bouncing Ball

"Beguiling...a slyly funny and perceptive take on creativity and the artist's life, and a gentle skewering of the art establishment and critics." John Foyston, The Oregonian

"Genre-defying...I admire Dixon's creativity and courage in stepping out of the box. ...Readers who struggle with the need/desire to create will recognize in Freeze [the main character] their own insecurities and demons." Julie McGuire, The Internet Review of Books

"Engrossing...beautifully portrayed... I kept wondering if the writer...was not also a painter. His sense of pictorial imagination is very strong." Robert Sievert, Artzine

“A Painter’s Life is a novel in chunks…Funny…Quirky…Charming.” Roberta Fallon, The Artblog

K.B. Dixon’s work has been described as original, clever, pithy, lyrical, insightful, gonzo, and laugh-out-loud funny. His new novel, A Painter’s Life, is a characteristically mischievous oddity. A mix of biographical scraps, journal entries, review excerpts, and interviews, it is an intimate and introspective tour of the art world — a portrait of the sometimes portraitist Christopher Freeze. Focusing in part on Freeze’s friends, family, and fellow artists — as well as his relationship with his frazzled dealer and his would-be monographer — it is an inventive, seriocomic look at one peculiar man’s ceaseless struggle to make something beautiful.

K. B. Dixon’s work has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and journals. The recipient of an OAC Individual Artist Fellowship Award, he is the author of three novels, The Sum of His Syndromes, Andrew (A to Z), and A Painter’s Life; as well as the short story collection, My Desk and I.