When I first entered college I thought I would be an actor. I chose the school for its theatre program. The very first day we assembled the dean said, “look to your right, look to your left, at the end of four years, one of you won’t be here.” I looked to my left and there was a guy in a long black cape, I looked to my right and there was a girl with a powdered face, teased hair, bright red lips, a spotted gingham dress and glittery red shoes and I said, “right- I’m leaving now.” The purpose of today’s exercise is to celebrate those of you who stayed in place and not the empty seat.

The ancients believed that the earth was the center of the universe. That everything, the sun, the moon, the stars, all revolved around them....and as an artist I think this also. The constellations are named after images. It was the first attempt to make the abstract figurative, not the other way around. It’s a problem that occurs over and over again. But even after the dots are connected, I don’t get it. I see Orion’s belt, but....

Our museums and public institutions support the ancients’ view. They are mostly designed to be “the glittering city on a hill”. You see this in your museums in this city, made of columns and friezes. Our modern museums have moved to the more salient notion of “glittering warehouse on the tracks” of vast, ever-expanding celebration of industrial storage centers. We should not forget that this style, one of the great architectural movements of the twentieth century, was started by poor artists who created Soho in order to have cheap space in which to create large artworks. It is now the standard for modern spaces, from these great museums to the pottery shops in Positano, Italy. We embrace the fast, the quick, the temporary contemporary. We are willing to store and display everything. Our museums are joining the place of cathedrals of the world. As destinations, they attract huge throngs of visitors and are advertised as the great architectural points of interest making minor cities great and great cities greater. There is now more interest, both financial and popular, in the fine arts than at any other time in modern history. This is why Steve Wynn built his museum in Las Vegas.

Like the ancients, we have our pantheon of gods. Celebrities have supplanted heroes, heroines, and harpes that plague the ancient world and have achieved this worshipful status by appearing to us as apparitions of light, flickering illusions real and unreal, and what a stir they cause when they walk amongst us.

In the arts money is poured into auction houses in an avalanche of incomprehensible numbers. There is more art bought, sold, and collected than ever before. There are two or three major contemporary auctions each year in every country in the modern world. That’s about thirty huge art auctions a year. Never confuse the worth of art with money. It is not hard currency. Where does all this art go? Where is that image in the stars?

This crazy quilt of frenzied stitching and flickering imagery is actually quite wonderful. At least the interest and the focus is to reward those who give the most. Your life should be spent trying to give something- to your culture, your friends, your world. You should spend your time in a battle of generosity.

For me, the fine arts are one of the greatest and most important callings in the world. Artists share a uniquely human attribute without demanding anything from people except a little time. I do mean a little time. The average time spent looking at a work of art in a museum is about 3 seconds. Lightning lasts but a second. Not much time to make an impression. Impressions create ideas and ideas guide you. That’s why you are here today. Except those actually struck by lightning. Remember the empty chair?

What is it that art gives to us? Art transfers the unknown to the known without losing the spirit in the transfer. The object radiates the history of art and transfers it again back to the eye of the viewer. This is not a trick, but a dialogue with the spirit and the intellect. We choose our medium. And this is the theatre of the object.

The reason that art is important is not because of its educational qualities. Art is not about education. We, as artists, do not educate because we do not know. We can only discover to encourage and persuade. What makes one work of art better than another? Answer: Intelligence. What makes one work more compelling than another? Answer: The spirit. What makes our life worth living? Answer: striving to improve the two.

While exchange is necessary in art, it is important to make art as if one is alone, as if no one will ever see it. This is true of whatever path you choose. It must be compelling to you. Obsessive. You must want to do the field you will choose. These are your ideas. They should be the spirit of your own compulsion.

I want to tell a story. Many years ago I was invited to an artists studio who was a terrific painter. And she asked me if I liked the painting that she had just finished. I loved it, and told her so. About a week later, she asked me to come to the studio again. And she asked me to look at the next painting. And she asked me if I liked it. I loved it, and I told her so. The same thing happened the third week, and I realized that she kept painting over each painting, trying to make it better. But she didn’t make the painting better, she only made three different paintings. I realized then that the problem with accepting her work as it was was a matter of confidence. There is understandably a desire to change the peculiar into the familiar. Stay peculiar. I’m sure you all are. Ask your parents.

Be generous, be insistent, be a bit paranoid. If you wonder what you should do with your life, think about what you’ve already done. You have done a lot to get here. It will be good to remember the old adage that if you see a frog sitting on top of a flagpole, odds are it didn’t get there by itself.

Today is the day when you’re being cracked over the head with a bottle of champagne and launched into the sea. I hope your vessel be well built and covered with tar, with a good wind to your back, or a well-oiled engine to carry you on your way. Maybe a hybrid.

I’m honored today to receive this doctorate, because now I can prescribe medication. Thank you and good luck.