“I think that art school has a tendency to sort of flatten roles for people.”
“My definition for a successful artist has always been someone who just keeps making art. Someone who doesn’t give up, someone who doesn’t let the system tell them they can’t be creative in whatever way makes sense for them.”
“If being an artist for you is painting flowers in your grandma’s attic for like 30 years, that makes you a successful artist because you did it for 30 years.”
“As artists … we all should be striving towards identifying our own personal constellation of artists, historical movements, conceptual movements that actually frame who we are individually as creative people.”
“There’s all these systemic barriers that don’t actually need to exist that make it harder for artists to do their work, for artists to find each other, and for artists to gain access to the information, knowledge systems, communities that are gonna push their careers forward.”
“Playing this game of who gets what exhibition or who gets what fancy fellowship or grant—all it does is put us in this perpetual state of feeling like we’re in competition with each other. And that’s where these people not at the center of this ecosystem, that’s how they win.”
“Keeping us constantly at odds with each other, keeping us constantly competing for resources, time, energy, opportunities that should be and are abundant—that’s how they win.”
“I think the more that artists talk to each other, the more that we can recognize the abundance that we can create for ourselves and for each other.”
“I didn’t have to wait for the gatekeepers to decide that I was good enough.”