The great Robert Henri, whose words in his magnum opus The Art Spirit ignited my own flames in starting this very website nearly 5 years ago, always spoke honestly and openly to his students. It is the kind of spirit and integrity that I have hoped to hold myself up to in all my years being an artist and a teacher. Here, I present to you a short commentary addressed to a student of his back in the late 1920’s. My hope is that his words inspire you as it did me and, that it reminds you, especially in times like today, of the wondrous path that always lies in front of you as a creative individual should you choose to make the commitment.
I think you can have a wonderful time. It is really a wonderful time I am wishing you. Art is, after all, only a trace-like footprint which shows that one has walked bravely and in great happiness. Those who live in full play of their faculties become master economists, they understand the relative value of things. Freedom can only be obtained through an understanding of basic order. Basic order is underlying all life. It is not to be found in the institutions men have made. Those who have lived and grown at least to some degree in the spirit of freedom are our creative artists. They have a wonderful time. They keep the world going. They must leave their trace in some way, paint, stone, machinery, whatever. The importance of what they do is greater than anyone estimates at the time. In fact, in a commercial world there are thousands of lives wasted doing things not worth doing. Human spirit is sacrificed. More and more things are produced without a will in the creation, and are consumed or “used” without a will in the consumption or the using. These things are dead. They pass, masquerading as important while they are before us, but they pass utterly. There is nothing so important as art in the world, nothing so constructive, so life-sustaining. I would like you to go to your work with a consciousness that it is more important than any other thing you might do. It may have no great commercial value, but it has an inestimable and lasting life value. People are often so affected by outside opinion that they go to their most important work half-hearted or half-ashamed. “What’s the use of it if you are not making money out of it?” is a too common question. To what distinction an artist’s labors are raised the moment he does happen to make money out of them! Very false values. I say this and I know as well as any the difficulties of making sufficient money and the necessity of making it in order to live and go on. Go to your work because it is the most important living to you. Make great things — as great as you are. — Robert Henri