Abbott Pattison, Visiting Artist Lecture 1957

Abbott Lawrence Pattison gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about his experiences as an artist. Pattison begins his lecture by telling participants that being an artist today means exploring and being a part of an incredibly challenging yet tremendous adventure. Pattison also urges the participants to make sure they spend time in cities, for being in a big city will be an important experience due to the vital, disturbing, and challenging ways it will allow them to grow. Pattison then begins to talk more intimately to the participants, stating that the artist is a rather lonely person, and there are not many people artists can talk to courteously and intelligently that can provide a space of home for them. Pattison draws on his own life experiences, saying that there have been many times when he has done something which seems to him to be perfectly understandable and recognizable while someone who knows nothing about the art world will make a cutting remark which they wouldn’t make about any other profession. Pattison tells the participants to ignore that kind of energy and not let them cloud the way in which they perceive the world. Pattison then goes on to talk about the importance of realizing that there are no boundaries, physical or spiritual, that the artist cannot transgress; everything is open. If an experience that an artist has gives them a deeper insight to the land, sea, mountain, or other human beings, this will allow the artist to be equipped to comment significantly on the great truths of the universe. Pattison elaborates on these points by stating that an artist should be a good craftsman, but firstly a good thinker, for a good thinker and a visionary must be transgressive. This will allow artists to also be their own critics and arrive at their own conclusions of the world around them. Pattison goes further by telling the artists that they have to look at what they’re making and they should never count on anybody to push them along. All the pushing, deciding, and figuring out has to be done absolutely independently. Pattison concludes that artists will always be lonely breeds because they have to figure things out themselves in their practices.