To paint. To make art. To make a "career" of art. In her unique and honest memoir, Barbara Caruso paints her life-- vibrant challenging, and engaged-- as a Canadian visual artist. With a rarity of contemporary avant-garde painters, Caruso's memoir emerges as important documentation of the artist's creative process. "A Painter's Journey" also provides a much-needed public record of Canadian art exhibits, and tracks Caruso's interaction with artists, collaborators, the Toronto art community, and her life with poet Nelson Ball. "A Painter's Journey" reads like a novel; in spare, elegant prose, Caruso tells the story of a young woman artist navigating the turbulent, fascinating years between 1966 and 1973 in the Toronto art world.