I found a good commencement speech for 2012, from author Neil Gaiman, given to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. I liked is because I too have been for decades trying to do what Gaiman encourages: make good art.
I'm unsure if our society wants good art. That's a question I constantly struggle to resolve and really haven't. But like so many others, I keep at it because making art is what I want to do, right down to my bones. I also like Gaiman's thoughts since I too realized a long time ago that their really are no rules, other than the ones we make up, to guide the artist.
The entire transcript and video are here, and you should read all of it. Here are some selections to entice you. (And congratulations to the many classes of 2012 graduates - now go do something.)
"When you start out on a career in the arts you have no idea what you are doing.
This is great. People who know what they are doing know the rules,
and know what is possible and impossible. You do not. And you should
not. The rules on what is possible and impossible in the arts were made
by people who had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond
them. And you can.
If you don't know it's impossible it's easier to do. And because
nobody's done it before, they haven't made up rules to stop anyone doing
that again."
---
"I learned to write by writing. I tended to do anything as long as it felt
like an adventure, and to stop when it felt like work, which meant that
life did not feel like work."
---
"Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in
business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that
life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should
do.
Make good art.
I'm serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg
crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on
your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Somebody on the
Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it's all been done
before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, and
eventually time will take the sting away, but that doesn't matter. Do
what only you do best. Make good art.
Make it on the good days too."
---
"We're in a transitional world right now, if you're in any kind of
artistic field, because the nature of distribution is changing, the
models by which creators got their work out into the world, and got to
keep a roof over their heads and buy sandwiches while they did that, are
all changing. I've talked to people at the top of the food chain in
publishing, in bookselling, in all those areas, and nobody knows what
the landscape will look like two years from now, let alone a decade
away. The distribution channels that people had built over the last
century or so are in flux for print, for visual artists, for musicians,
for creative people of all kinds.
Which is, on the one hand, intimidating, and on the other, immensely
liberating. The rules, the assumptions, the now-we're supposed to's of
how you get your work seen, and what you do then, are breaking down. The
gatekeepers are leaving their gates. You can be as creative as you need
to be to get your work seen. YouTube and the web (and whatever comes
after YouTube and the web) can give you more people watching than
television ever did. The old rules are crumbling and nobody knows what
the new rules are.
So make up your own rules."
