Recently, a good friend told me about Nell Painter’s book, Old in Art School.  I knew immediately that I had to push it up to first on my summer reading list.  I am indulging in Nell’s journey from Princeton history academic to an BFA at Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of Visual Arts to an MFA from the prestigious Rhode Island School of design.  Much of Nell’s book is familiar because she is a Jersey girl and I also attended Rutgers as both an undergraduate and graduate.  The essential questions of what is art and who is an artist repeat as a refrain in this memoir.  I took a long slow read, trying my best to experience what Nell had lived.