 Julie Mehretu Recently the artist Julie Mehretu delivered an extraordinary speech to artists graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design. Please read it for yourself (here) and let me know what you think.
I was struck by her understanding of how important it is for creative people to be comfortable with uncertainty, both in life and in art. This advice to artists applies to all of us, especially when we’re feeling lost or overwhelmed. Here’s how she describes uncertainty: “The most necessary work comes from the willingness to stay in the discomfort of the open question, to resist the urge to conclude before the thing is ready to conclude. What I am describing is one of the hardest and most disciplined practices available to a human being, the practice of remaining inside uncertainty, of making something from nothing, of reaching into the radical imaginatory for a thing that did not exist before and could not have been planned.” Many artists wonder how to continue making art in the face of the chaos out there in the world and sometimes in our own lives. Artists wonder whether making art matters, whether it can make a difference or make anything better. Remaining open, staying inside uncertainty means you don’t know the answers to the big questions but allow yourself to go on, trusting your own creative process without trying to predict the future. Sometimes we face impossible dilemmas, or just difficult decisions. The hardest thing to do is to live with not knowing what to do long enough to allow for new possibilities. We can’t always find answers to our dilemmas by asking AI or doing a goggle search. Sometimes we need creative solutions that come only after periods of great uncertainty. Comments are closed.
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