Read: Tortured Artists By Christopher Zara

TORTURED ARTISTS: FROM PICASSO AND MONROE TO WARHOL AND WINEHOUSE, THE TWISTED SECRETS OF THE MOST CREATIVE MINDS

By Tom Charles

Sad souls make beautiful artists. Just look at Kurt Cobain and Sylvia Plath. It's precisely this lack of anguish that prevented Taylor Swift from landing herself a spot in Christopher Zara's book, Tortured Artists, which chronicles the innermost conflicts that pushed some of history's most spectacular artists to greatness.

Each of the book's eight sections lump together a collection of mini-profiles on artists who spent their lives tormented by similar demons. Johnny Cash and Andy Warhol, for example, both experienced childhood trauma comparable to the mental scarring Picasso suffered in his youth. Picasso's 3-year-old eyes would never forget the image of his mother prematurely give birth during an earthquake.This graphic image fueled his insatiable libido, a trait that influenced much of his work. Conversely, Jane Austen and Dante Alighieri were both haunted by their lack of swagger. After falling head-over-heels for the breathtaking Beatrice Portinari, Dante spent the next 30 years cursing his inability to get her in the sack. With the fire still burning for his lost love, he wrote The Divine Comedy, and constructed today's perceptions of heaven and hell in the process.Talk about the one who got away.

If there's one thing to learn from this book, it's that the College of Visual and Performing Arts won't teach you shit. A lesson for all you striving artists: drop out of school and throw a skeleton or two in your closest. It'll do you a world of good.