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Art is for anyone.Its just not for everyone.
What theyre really asking is How can I be an artist?
How do you get from there to making real art, great art?
Theres no special way; everyone has their own path.
Yet, over the years, Ive found myself giving the samebits of advice.
Most of them were simply gleaned from looking at art, then looking some more.
Others from listening to artists talk about their work and their struggles.
(Everyones a narcissist.)
Ive even stolen a couple from my wife.
35: Fake it till you make it.
Step One:You Are a Total Amateur
Five lessons before you even get started.
Lesson 1:Dont Be Embarrassed
I get it.
When I work, I feel sick to my stomach with thoughts likeNone of this is any good.
It makes no sense.But art doesnt have to make sense.
It doesnt even need to be good.So dont worry about being smart and let go of being good.
Lesson 2:Tell your own story and you will be interesting.
Louise Bourgeois
Amen, Louise.
Dont stay in your own lane.
Drawing within the lines is for babies; making things add up and be right is for accountants.
Dont take a stab at do it with a big single project.
And be happy with baby steps.
Make these things yours.This is your house now.
Lesson 4:Art Is Not About Understanding.
It is about doing and experience.
No one asks what Mozart means.
Imagination is your creed; sentimentality and lack of feeling your foe.
All art comes from love love of doing something.
If you work, it will lead to something.
Its the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch onto things.
I have tried every way in the world to stop work-block or fear of working, of failure.
There is only one method that works: work.
Every artist and writer I know claims to work in their sleep.
How many times have you been given a whole career in your dreams and not heeded it?
Step Two:How to Actually Begin
An instruction manual for the studio.
Lesson 6:Start With a Pencil
Dont worry about drawing.
These are forms of drawing, too.
Make those marks shorter or longer.
All these things are telling you something.
Dance with these experiences, collaborate with them.
Theyre the leader; you follow.
Youll be dancing to the music of art.
Carry a sketchbook with you at all times.
Cover a one-by-one-foot piece of paper with marks.
But dont just fill the whole page border to border, edge to edge.
(Way too easy.)
Now do this on another surface, any surface, to know what kind of material appeals to you.
Just make marks; decorate these surfaces.
Dont worry about doing more.All art is a form of decoration.
Now ask someone what ideas they get when they look at what youve made.
Theyve just told you more about what youve already done.
If the other person sees it in your work, its there.
Next, draw the square foot in front of you.
This can be tight, loose, abstract, realistic.
It tells you what you missed seeing.This will be your first masterpiece.
Now draw the same square foot from the other side.
You are already becoming a much better seeing machine and you dont even know it.
Lots of hands on the same page, hands over other hands.
Other peoples hands, if you want to.
Play with different scales, make things bigger, smaller, twisted.
Exercise: Forget Being a Genius and Develop Some SkillsI think all artists should: Build a clay pot.
Sew pieces of fabric together.
Make a wooden bowl on a lathe, by carving.
Make a lithograph, etching, or woodblock print.
Make one hokey Dali-like painting or mini Kusama light installation to get this out of your system.
You are now in possession of ancient secret knowledge.
You still have to do it in an original way.
it’s possible for you to do the same your skill will be whatever it is youre doing differently.
Lesson 9:Embed thought in material.
Roberta Smith
What does this mean?An object should express ideas; art should contain emotions.
And these ideas and feelings should be easy to understand complex or not.
I started yelling,No!
These are just dumb pictures of clouds and have nothing to do with anything.
There is a different way.
In the winter of 1917, Marcel Duchamp, age 29, bought a urinal at J.L.
Today it is called the most influential artwork of the 20th century.
This project of embedding thought in material to change our conception of the world isnt only a new development.
It has lasted tens of thousands of years.
With that in mind …
Include anything you want: words, letters, maps, photos, objects, signs.
This should take no longer than a week.
After a week, its finished.
Now show it to someone who does not know you well.
Tell them only, This is a totem pole of my life till now.
It doesnt matter if they like it.
Ask them to tell you what it means about your life.
Listen to what they tell you.
Lesson 10:Find Your Own Voice
Then exaggerate it.
Do it 100 times or 1,000 times.
If it still looks too much like the other persons, try another path.
He was all but shunned for this.
He followed his voice anyway.
This work is now some of the most revered from the entire period.
Exercise: An ArchaeologyMake an index, family tree, chart, or diagram of your interests.
All of them, everything: visual, physical, spiritual, sexual.
Leisure time, hobbies, foods, buildings, airports, everything.
Every book, movie, website, etc.
The totality of this self-exposure may be daunting, scary.
But your voice is here.
This will become a resource and record to return to and add to for the rest of your life.
A team of rivals, friends, famous people, influences dead and alive.
Theyre all looking over my shoulder as I work; none of them are mean.
(Writers need editors.
)These voices will always be there for when things get tough.
Lesson 12:Know What You Hate
It is probably you.
Exercise: Make a List of ArtMake a list of three artists whose work you despise.
Often theres something about what these artists do that you share.
Really think about this.
Lesson 13:Scavenge
Life is your syllabus: Gather from everywhere.
Then work them into your own art 100 times or 1,000 times.
Step Three:Learn How to Think Like an Artist
This is the fun part.
Now call your cat.
What am I saying?
In seeing how the cat reacted, you are seeing something very close to how artists communicate.
The cat is not interested in direct communication.
The cat places a third thing between you and it and relates to you through this third thing.
Cats communicate abstractly, indirectly.
(And they cant be herded.)
Lesson 15:Understand That Art Is Not Just for Looking At
Art does something.
The paintings inside the tombs were meant to be seen only by beings in the afterlife.
Tack the list to your studio wall.
Those are magical abracadabras for you.
The content might be a rebellion or an indictment of religion.
It might be claustrophobia or hysteria or the madness of religion or civilization.
The subject matter of MichelangelosDavidis a standing man with a sling.
This content is High Renaissance.
BerninisDavid,made 120 years later, is Baroque all action and drama.
When you look at art,make subject matter the first thing you see and then stop seeing it.
What is white to Ryman?
Note the date: 1960.
Why would he make this painting then?
Would this have looked like other art at the time?
How would it have been different?
Ask yourself what else was being made then.
How is the work hung on the wall?
Is it in a frame?
Is the stretcher or surface thick, thin, close to the wall?
Are some parts more important than others?
What is Rymans relationship to materials, tools, mark-making?
How do you think he made the work?
How might it be original or innovative?
Why should this be in a museum?
Why should it not be in a museum?
Would you want to live with it?
Why or why not?
Why do you imagine the painting is this size?
Now try a Frida Kahlo.
Exercise: Compare These Eight NudesForget the subject matter what is each of these paintings actuallysaying?
What are the artists doing?
They will say, Seeing how it is made.
I would say,Stealing.
you’re able to steal from anything.
Bad art teaches you as much as good art.
Lesson 18:All Art Is Identity Art!
This is because it is made bysomebody.
All art is a confession, more or less oblique.
Step Four:Enter the Art World
A guide to the snake pit.
You may feel overlooked, underrecognized, and underpaid.
Stop feeling sorry for yourself; thats not why youre doing this.
Lesson 21:Define Success
But be careful.
Also, Subway sells a lot of sandwiches, but that doesnt make them good.
What about being happy?
Dont be silly!A lot of successful people are unhappy.
And a lot of happy people arent successful.
Im successful, and Im confused, terrified, insecure, and foul all the time.
Success and happiness live on different sides of the tracks.
Do you want the real definition of success?
The best definition of success is time the time to do your work.
How will you make time if you dont have money?
You will work full time for a long time.
You will be depressed because of this for a long time resentful, frustrated, envious.
Im sorry, thats the way it is.
But youre a sneaky, resourceful artist!
But you are really sneaky and resourceful; this is a life-and-death matter to you.
Now get to work.
Or quit being an artist.
Lesson 22:It Takes Only a Few People to Make a Career
Exactly how many?
This dealer doesnt have to be in New York.
Each of these six collectors might talk to six other collectors about your work.
It would be best if these critics were of your generation, not geezers like me.
Ive seen it done with one!
In 1957, gallery owner Leo Castelli discovered Jasper Johns while visiting Robert Rauschenbergs studio.
Castelli immediately offered Johns his first solo show.
Additional works were bought by Philip Johnson and Burton and Emily Hall Tremaine.
Before the show even went up, executive editor Thomas Hess put a Johns on the cover ofARTnews.
Visitors asked for the key to the room at the front desk.
They went upstairs, unlocked the door, and entered a small studio apartment facing 23rd Street.
Any of the works could have been stolen; none were.
According to the hotel ledger, only 38 people saw the show after the opening.
It doesnt take much.
I cant sugarcoat this next part: Some people are better connected than others.
They get to 12 faster.
The art world is full of these privileged people.
you could hate them.
This needs to change and be changed.
By all of us.
Dont use art jargon; write in your own voice, write how you talk.
Dont attempt to write smart.
Keep your statement direct, clear, to the point.
Dont oppose big concepts like nature and culture.
Those guys are great.
But dont quote them.
Come up with your own theory.
People who claim to hate or have no theory: Thats your theory, you idiots!
Important things are hard to write about.
Thats the way it is.
And if its pretentious to say, dont say it.
Have them tell you what they think your work looks like.
Two Tips:(A) Dont make writing a big deal.
Just write, you big baby!
You already know how to write.
(B) Never just say, You tell me what it is.
When it comes to your work, youre the best authority there is.
Artists must commune with their own kind all the time.
There are no exceptions to this rule, even if you live out in the woods.
Preferably commune in person, but online is more than fine.
It doesnt matter where you live: big city, small city, little town.
This is how you will change the world and your art.
Argue, sleep with, love, hate, get sick of your fellow gang members.
Whatever happens, you need one another for now.
Manet didnt want to show with Cezanne because he thoughthewas vulgar.
His wife went through the trash, rescued them, and persuaded him to keep writing.
But dont just ignore criticism.
Instead, keep your rejection letters; paste them to your wall.
You might be ahead of your time, but the person couldnt see it.
Thats all on you.
In general, you must be open to critique but also develop an elephant skin.
Lesson 26:Make an Enemy of Envy
Today!
Envy looks at others but blinds you.
Envy erodes your inner mind, leaves less room for development and, most important, for honest self-criticism.
From this fortress, everything that doesnt happen to you is blamed on something or someone else.
You fancy yourself a modern van Gogh, a passed-over genius the world isnt ready for.
You relinquish agency and responsibility.
Your feelings of lack define you, make you sour, bitter, not loving, and mean.
Poor you.Too bad that all those other bad artists are getting shows and youre not.
Too bad theyre getting the articles, money, and love!
Im unable to attend seated dinners.
We all do the best we can.
Probably 90 percent of all artists have had children.
These artists have mostly been men, and it wasnt bad for their careers.
Having children is not bad for your career.
Having children means having less time or money or space.
Most children raised within the art world have amazing lives.
Step Six:Attain Galactic Brain
Jerrys cosmic epigrams.
You never know when you will see a so-called figurative painting that catches your attention.
So dont be an art-world undertaker pronouncing mediums dead!
It is no more or less important than philosophy, religion, economics, or psychology.
Lesson 30:Artists do not own the meaning of their work.
Roberta Smith
Remember: anyone may use your art any art in any way that works for them.
Lesson 31:All Art Is Subjective
What does this mean?
It doesnt mean youre dumb.
This is the case with almost all good art.
Now I finally see!Until the next time it rearranges your thinking.
Lesson 32:You Must Prize Vulnerability
Radical vulnerability.
We all contradict ourselves.
Lesson 33:Be Delusional
At three a.m., demons speak to all of us.
I am old, and they still speak to me every night.
You are, now.
Art is for anyone, it just isnt for everyone.
These rules are your tools.
Now use them to go change the world.Get to work!
How to Be an Artistby Jerry Saltz will be published March 17, 2020.
