“Creating commercially viable images is not the goal of art. It’s for your own protection.’
In particular, for a young person attempting to make sense of the world and his place in it, the search to discover one’s purpose and live a creative life bravely is neither simple nor easy.
Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876–March 8, 1941) added a lovely note to history’s best fatherly guidance letters when he sent his seventeen-year-old son John in the spring of 1926. The letter, which can be found in Posterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children (public library), includes guidance on a variety of topics, including understanding whose advice not to heed and the deceptive attraction of money as well as the joy of producing things with your hands:
I dare suggest that the greatest thing to do is to first learn anything thoroughly so that you can always make a living. Bob has received another raise and appears to be making progress in the newspaper industry. Working in a smaller city is giving him fantastic training. Any of the scientific fields necessitate extensive education and application. Nothing could be more ideal if you were built for it. In the end, you’ll have to reach your own judgment.
The arts, which most likely provide a man with greater satisfaction, are ambiguous. Making a living is challenging. Even though I assume I would continue to write if I had my own life to manage, I am confident that my top priority would be to develop my manual dexterity. Nothing can compare to the gratification that comes from doing things.
Avoid, at all costs, following the advice of men who lack intelligence and knowledge. Most small business owners will only say, “Look at me.” They believe that if they have a tiny fortune and a position in a select group, they are qualified to offer counsel to anybody.
The development of good taste comes in second to occupation. That work is slow and challenging. Few succeed in it. At the end of the day, it makes a huge difference. I am continuously astounded by how little writers, merchants, painters, and manufacturers know about their respective fields. Most men just float about.
Many men possess a certain kind of cunningness that allows them to make money. It’s the cunning of the fox pursuing the chicken. It frequently comes with a low order of mentality. Above all, I want you to get a close-up look at a variety of men. You would benefit most from that. I’m not sure exactly how that will be done. There could be a way, after all. I’ll see you this summer, though. This week, we start to pack for the country.
The youngster stayed in Paris to pursue his art studies the year after Anderson and his wife took his sister Marion, who was 18, and eighteen, to Europe. Sherwood gave John another heartbreaking letter of advice in April 1927, adding to history’s best definitions of art and highlighting the significance of discipline in developing “talent,” drawing on his own artistic experience and the similarities between writing and painting:
Pertaining to painting
Don’t let something that is trendy or modern sweep you off your feet. Visit the Louvre frequently and spend a lot of time in front of the Rembrandts and Delacroixes. Take up drawing. Make an effort to train your hands to be so skilled that they can record what you feel without you having to think about them. After then, you can consider what is in front of you. Draw objects that mean anything to you. What does the word “apple” mean? The drawing’s subject isn’t all that important.
It all depends on how you feel and what it means to you. A turnip dish could be transformed into a work of art with hundreds of drawings, keep drawing.
Stay as humble as you can. Knowledge destroys everything. Making marketable images is not the goal of art. It is to protect you. My sense of language is responsible for any cleanliness I have in my own life. The idiots who write articles about me believe that I chose to start writing one morning and started creating works of art.
Writing and painting don’t require any specific skills. For fifteen years, I wrote nonstop before I came up with anything of any substance.
Of course, the key is to keep yourself alive. Most people live their entire lives in a state of stupor.
The benefit of being an artist is the possibility of survival. You won’t show up. It is a never-ending hunt. I’m writing to you as if you’re a man. You must be aware that I have my heart set on you. I’m not interested in your success. There’s a chance that you have a respectable outlook on life and work. You might become a man just from that.
The entire book Posterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children is enjoyable to read. Combine this passage with Georgia O’Keeffe’s magnificent letter to Sherwood Anderson from three years prior, which discusses success and what it means to be an artist.
