Author Neil Gaiman wrote, “Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art.”
And that’s what our student-artists have done.
Our artists are in some ways our most vulnerable. They are our canaries, our soft parts. They feel not just for themselves but for us all and in making sense of their world enlighten us each to ours, but suffer for the cause of honesty.
As we tour the Arts building tonight to view our student-artists’ work you will see photographs and drawings, paintings, collages, clothing and mixed-media installations that they have created these past 18 months in an attempt to make sense of their world. With work focused on the continued degradation of our environment, the failure of our political and economic systems, and the objectification of women, our students will make meaning of our world and hold it up to us as a mirror with which to reckon, or deny. With work focused on feelings of loneliness, angst, freedom, and in some cases desperation, our student-artists will remind us of our own struggles and our common humanity. In this way our artists are also our most courageous. They reveal who we are by revealing themselves: wholly, honestly with abandon.
Albert Einstein said, “It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense. It would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.”
Tonight, our student-artists will help us make meaning of our world and of ourselves. For this, we thank you. Thank you for forcing us to acknowledge ourselves in all of our multitudes. Thank you for your talent yes, but more for your hard work, and for showing us that even in times of great difficulty we can do great things.
Please Come to the Principal’s Office 