Wise Words

We attended Kansas City Art Institute's graduation on Saturday.
One of the foundation teachers shared his wise words and what he tells his beginning students.

One thing he said especially caught my ear. Sometimes you have to let loose of the banana to get what you want. It was based on one those interesting monkey tests. Some monkeys were enticed by some bananas in a cage. It was a trap. The monkeys reached in the cage to get a banana and wham they were trapped. They grabbed the banana and would not let go. They were trapped. All they had to do to get free was let go of the banana. If they let go they were free, if not they stayed trapped. OK, so I must let go of the banana to have freedom.

Be yourself to find yourself. You are already you.

And of course, you learn by making mistakes. I always tell my students if you don't fail at a project or part of it, you have not pushed yourself hard enough.