Video of a Reading
On Learning (to be an Artist)
I am pleased to share an excerpt of my reading at the College for Creative Studies this August in support of my new poetry chapbooks Trample & Sew and News of Need. Alongside readings and discussion on my artistic process, I tried to convey the depth of my gratitude for the time I spent as a bachelor of fine arts student at CCS from 1999 to 2003. The video except I chose above is a reading of “Varnish,” from a forthcoming book, which I chose because it is about a young artist coming to terms with his calling and relationship to a role model.
The talk was dedicated to late professors Joseph Wesner, Gilda Snowden, Nancy Mitter, Denis Galfi, and Joe Bernard. Each of these exceptional artists, along with others in attendance, taught me that the basis of the creative practice lies in honoring our own perception and perspective of the world clearly and bravely. They taught me that the defining characteristic of a successful artist is not any one artwork or exhibition but the ability to diligently continue learning for a lifetime. They defined success not in material terms but as a continuation of ancient human traditions of seeking, meditating, storytelling, myth-tending, experimenting, soul-searching, communicating, criticizing, rebelling, educating, remembering, and making.
With the rigorous practice of making at CCS came the painful but necessary lessons that not every piece works out, and that art cannot be forced or cheated, but that we can find the wisdom to let go, move on, and start again. I learned many things the hard way.
Through my role models I gained permission to be an adult who merely loved but also saw transformative truth in words, in making marks with charcoal and paint, gouging wood with chisels, pulling prints from etched plates, and watching new forms emerge that speak back to us, whether from raw stone, welded steel, or cast bronze. They also made it brutally clear that I should not expect anyone to understand or care about what I am creating, and that I should be grateful for any success I might be fortunate enough to receive.
They taught me that I must adapt and always push myself through the technical and spiritual challenges facing me as an artist. It is a privilege as well as a calling to dedicate any part of one’s life seriously to making work that can communicate the mystery, beauty, comedy, and tragedy of human experience to others. They conveyed a nobleness, a grand sense of purpose and mission, to the arts that I try to honor and live up to. How do we stand on the shoulders of giants while also charting new paths, radical new paths if needed, for our own visions?
A paraphrased quote often attributed to Gustav Mahler says so much: ‘Tradition is passing on the fire, not worshiping the ashes.’ CCS showed me the fire and taught me how to tend it. Now I try to pass it on through my work.
I hope to post the full reading and talk in the near future. Please follow me on social media or join my mailing list (below) to stay informed.
