Story: 27 February 2020

Acrylic paint on canvas

On February 25, 2020, I was checking an email on my phone from Guggenheim Teaching Materials which contained some useful links. I then happened to click on one titled 8 Artists: Advice to the Young, and got really absorbed because the content was really interesting, regardless of me not being young anymore. All the featured artists spoke well, but the person who left the strongest impression on my mind was Patti Smith. I had never heard of her before so I looked her up and found that she is a rock star. However, that fact is not as important as the sincere and moving advice she gave to artists of younger generations. While she elaborated on the essence of creativity or the essence of life, other speakers focused on the arts as something which embodies ego and a sense of right or wrong, good or bad.

Patti Smith: When I was really young, William Burroughs told me - and I was really struggling, we never had any money - and the advice that William gave me was "build a good name", you know, keep your name clean. Don't make compromises. Don't worry about making a bunch of money or being successful - be concerned with doing good work and make the right choices, and protect your work. And if you build a good name, eventually, you know, that name will be its own currency.

To be an artist - actually, to be a human being in these times - it's all difficult. You have to go through life, hopefully, you know, trying to stay healthy, you know, being as happy as you can and pursuing, you know, doing what you want. If what you want is to have children. If what you want is to be a baker. If what you want is to live out in the woods, or try to save the environment. Or maybe what you want is to write scripts for detective shows. It doesn't really matter, you know. What matters is to know what you want and pursue it, and understand that it's gonna be hard because life is really difficult. You're gonna lose people you love. You're gonna suffer heartbreak. Sometimes you'll be sick. Sometimes you'll have a really bad toothache. Sometimes you'll be hungry. But on the other end, you'll have the most beautiful experiences. Sometimes just the sky. Sometimes, you know, a piece of work that you do that feels so wonderful. Or you find somebody to love or your children, or there's beautiful things in life. So, when you’re suffering, just, you know, it's part of the package, you know. You look at it, we're born and we also have to die. We know that, so it makes sense that we're gonna be really happy and things are gonna be really fucked up too.

Her words exude humility and sincerity with a timeless meaning.

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