Memoirs of an Artist: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

“Billy Selesnick tells all (well, almost all) in Memoirs of an Artist, the meandering story of his life. While outlining his artistic growth, his druggie lifestyle, and sexual peccadillos, Selesnick doesn’t shy away from talking about his old pal Chuck Barris and their common profession as political assassins.”
- Shirrel Rhoades, former Associate Publisher, Harper’s Magazine

Here’s the first-person story of a talented artist who freelanced as an assassin. If this sounds somewhat like Gong Show host Chuck Barris’s “unauthorized autobiography,” Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, there’s good reason. According to Billy Selesnick, he worked with Barris. Not only did they ply their deadly trade in the ‘60s, but when George Clooney decided to do the movie version of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Barris sent him to meet Billy Selesnick, as an example of a real-deal hitman. Aside from that, Billy Selesnick’s life has been a fascinating journey of art, sex, drugs, political activism, and breathless travels around the world.

Billy Selesnick is a successful painter, whose works have made it into collections from Paris to Rio, New York and beyond. He still does two paintings a week and prefers fleshy women. He says he’s recovering from an amnesia “much like Jason Bourne, a character in a series of espionage books who due to brainwashing could not remember what he did.”