At the moment I’m reading Just Kids, a book of prose penned by Patti Smith documenting her time in New York during the late sixties and early seventies. It’s a remarkable story that focuses on Patti’s relationship and creative partnership with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and their growth as artists. I highly recommend it, even/especially to those who’ve never heard these names before.
Just Kids offers up many inspiring insights into the creative process and lifestyle, and they’re compiled in this wonderful article by Nextness: ‘What Matters Is The Work: 25 Lessons for Creatives in Patti Smith’s Just Kids’.
A few highlights:
1. Never apologise for being an artist.
No one would see what [Robert] had seen, no one would understand. He’d had it all his life, but in the past he tried to make up for it, as if it were his fault. He compensated for this with a sweet nature, seeking approval from his father, from his teachers, from his peers. He wasn’t certain whether he was a good or bad person… But he was certain of one thing. He was an artist. And for that he would never apologise.
11. Delight in a trusting creative partnership.
Both of us [Patti and Robert] had given ourselves to others. We vacillated and lost everyone, but we had found each other again. We wanted, it seemed, what we already had, a lover and a friend to create with, side by side. To be loyal, yet free.
21. If you miss a beat, create another.
When we got to the part where we had to improvise an argument in a poetic language, I got cold feet. “I can’t do this,” I said. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Say anything,” he [Sam Shephard] said. “You can’t make a mistake when you improvise.”
“What if I mess it up? What if I screw up the rhythm?”
“You can’t,” he said. “It’s like drumming. If you miss a beat, you create another.”
In this simple exchange, Sam taught me the secret of improvisation, one that I have accessed my whole life.
