After twenty long years of destitution from being rejected by popular art sellers, an artist decides to reverse his misfortune by besting the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A young California-based sculptor has it all: a supportive girlfriend, a promising sculpture, and an optimistic vision of the future. But when problems arise and the artist is forced to adapt, he risks losing it all.

An aspiring artist goes to work for a businessman, hoping he can earn enough to follow his dream. Instead, he is forced to learn that dreams are not as important to the world as money.

An amateur painter attends his first art show, hoping to sell some of his work. He soon understands, however, that the path to success in art is not nearly as simple as he once perceived it to be.

A man who is trying to find his place in the world tries his hand at multiple professions but ultimately settles with painting. Though he has talent as a painter, he leaves his patrons unsatisfied, taking wild artistic liberties he takes with commissions—a lesson which his two closest friends will come to learn when he paints a portrait of one of them.

A talented lower class painter strikes a horrible deal with a popular, untalented nobleman - his masterpieces will receive the adoration they deserve, under another man's name.

A famous novelist emotionally manipulates a young artist in order to write about him and inadvertently causes the artist to commit suicide.

A struggling writer finally completes his novel, only to have his original voice corrupted by the demands of his publisher. His supportive family cannot understand why he is unhappy with his success - but after a tragic accident leads to his death, they find solace in the remnants of his work.

After a dangerous encounter with a predatory artist in the 1980s, a former artist-turned-housewife tries to imbue her oblivious teenage daughter with that same fear of men that leaves her cold decades later.

In the late 90s, a woman moves from New York to LA to teach part time at an art school. As she becomes disillusioned with the art world, she finds a dominant partner and turns to BDSM to ground herself in the empty landscape.