'I will devote my life to beating my head against that wall.”

Photo by sprklg via CC

Mason Currey appreciates a definition of an artist's work that John Cage shared during a 1958 lecture. Cage recounted his time studying with Arnold Schoenberg, who told him: “To write music, you must have a feeling for harmony.” Cage admitted he had none. Schoenberg warned he’d face an insurmountable obstacle. Cage responded, “Then I will devote my life to beating my head against that wall.”

That, Currey says, is the essence of being an artist—working at the edge of your abilities, never fully mastering your craft, but persisting anyway. Some days bring joy, others frustration, but the work continues. As Cage put it, “Maybe not the best, but everything works out to something.”

ARTICLE:What Artists Really Do

'I will devote my life to beating my head against that wall.”

How the design of spaces, places, images and objects impacts the lives of those branded as marginalized

Learning to use emissions and residues to make new products

“People are incredibly generous, and creativity has no limits."

Reparative reading leaves "an enormous space, in which anything, nothing, something could happen next."

'I will devote my life to beating my head against that wall.”

How the design of spaces, places, images and objects impacts the lives of those branded as marginalized

Learning to use emissions and residues to make new products

“People are incredibly generous, and creativity has no limits."

Reparative reading leaves "an enor­mous space, in which anything, nothing, something could happen next."

Reparative reading leaves "an enormous space, in which anything, nothing, something could happen next."