Blog Archives

Pearls from artists* # 696

At the Whitney Museum
At the Whitney Museum with fellow artists

*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.

Although it’s important to make communities with like-minded people — people who are your age, your generation, who are working on projects that have resonance with yours — I am a firm believer in crossing generations to find mentorship and inspiration, and a sense of furthering the craft. So I’d say that as you begin to seek mentorship, be creative about where you look. Look in unlikely places, and make it more likely that you will cross boundaries and reach a wider, more culturally and intellectually diverse audience.

Anna Deavere Smith in Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-Up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts — for Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind”

Comments are welcome!

Pearls from artists* # 380

“John,” Soft Pastel on Sandpaper, 22” x 28” (image), 1989.

“John,” Soft Pastel on Sandpaper, 22” x 28” (image), 1989.

* an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.

The freedom he enjoyed came at a cost.  But those fears and irritations evaporated amid the support the artists gave one another immediately after the war.  A community developed that sustained them and gave them courage.  “You have to have confidence amounting to arrogance, because particularly at the beginning, you’re making something that nobody asked you to make,”  Elaine [de Kooning] said.  “And you have to have total confidence in yourself, and in the necessity of what you’re doing.”  That was much easier done in a group of like-minded individuals.

Mary Gabriel in Ninth Street Women

Comments are welcome!