Carmen Herrera's bus finally arrives

I've been doing the annual personal assessment that many do around this time of year.  Got me thinking about a a great story that ran in the New York Times a couple weeks ago about Carmen Herrera, a 94-year-old artist who's finally being recognized as an important and pioneering geometric abstract artist after selling her first painting five years ago. In the article, she says, “I do it because I have to do it; it’s a compulsion that also gives me pleasure.” She's talking about painting.  But I think that's what we're all looking for: something to do with our lives that we do out of pure passion and that gives us pleasure.  We want to be inspired.  Art inspires me to live life with intensity and passion and it teaches me many lessons.  What inspires you?

Ed Winkleman summarizes the lessons for artists that he learned from Herrera, though I think these lessons can be applied to all of us non-artists too:

1. Keep at what you're passionate about. Don't chase after trends or different media with the hopes of igniting your career...you'll never catch up to those doing something fashionable now and you probably won't be as good at something you're faking.
2. Discuss your work on the terms in which you think about it. If people in the art world want to bring other things to it (if they see sex where there is none or politics where you didn't intend that) let them carry on...but don't feel pressured to agree. Let your work speak for itself.
3. Your best "in" will always, always be your friends in the art world...so network! It was Herrera's good friend (another painter) Tony Bechara, who recommended her for a women's geometric abstraction exhibition that launched her success.
4. Nothing...I repeat nothing...replaces hard work if your goal for your art is true recognition and lasting importance. If they bottled what it took, everyone would be a historically important artist.

The rest of the must-read New York Times article about Carmen Herrera HERE.

The rest of Winkleman's thoughts on the article HERE.