Friday, February 14, 2014

Day eleven: You have something that no one else has.

l realized late last night, after a lovely evening with many wonderful people, that I didn't finish my post yesterday. I didn't include the good part.

All stereotypes about what an artist is and should be aside, the artists I have known are people that operate in the world in a way that raises us all up. They are brilliant and curious and generous and brave. In my experience, just the chance to be around other artists is a good reason to be an artist.

The best way to learn to be an artist is to decide what you have to give to the world. It could be one thing or it could be many things, but it has to be something you feel that only you can offer.

Wallace Stevens said "The people in the world, and the objects in it, and the world as a whole, are not absolute things, but on the contrary, are the phenomena of perception... If we were all alike: if we were millions of people saying do, re, mi, in unison, One poet would be enough... But we are not alone, and everything needs expounding all the time because, as people live and die, each one perceiving life and death for himself, and mostly by and in himself, there develops a curiosity about the perceptions of others. This is what makes it possible to go on saying new things about old things."

It is easy to give up. It is easy to say that everything has been done before. Painting is dead. You won't sell anything until you die. You'll never find a job. This list could also go on forever.

Don't fall into that trap. You have something valuable to share.

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