A Brief History of John Baldessari

This five-minute video is a little story about the artist Baldessari, narrated by Tom Waits. His painting that is shown at 5:15 is one of my old favorites (ok so the video is six minutes. sue me).

Here's what I learned: Baldessari thinks every young artist should know three things.

1. Talent is cheap.
2. You have to be possessed, which you can't will.
3. Be at the right place at the right time.

The middle one is true of research as well. Tomorrow I walk across the stage at the Kohl Center, graduating with my Ph.D.! It definitely took many moments of being possessed to make it so far.