Sol LeWitt

So I really enjoyed reading about Sol LeWitt today. He was someone that I had never really heard of until now and his story was very refreshing. First of all, whenever I hear a success story to the degree of the LeWitt family's, it always kind of sparks revelation in me. If the road ahead for us hear at UD looks bumpy, it's kind of reasuring that those have been through much worse and have managed such great success while keeping true to themselves. LeWitt's parents were two lower class, Russian immigrants that came to America and started a legacy, whose son moved on after them, living up to what they were, and probably to what they had hoped from him. LeWitt's modest attitude that was captured in this article reallly was impressing. He was granted awards which he turned down, public interviews which were denied, even commemoration that was not accepted. This man wanted absolutely nothing for all the work he had lived his life doing. He had all the fame and fortune that only seldom comes with the life of an artist, and he wanted nothing of it. Stories like these always seem to amaze me because after all the obstacles we all know will come with living the lives of artists, I think if you are rewarded it would be easy to fall into that snotty sort of lifestyle.
Its something I have been thinking about lately especially because of some of the things Amy Wilson had to say on Thursday. I really appreciated how she admitted to keeping herself grounded with the small "toys" she that she likes to create and hand out periodically. And how it keeps the audiences she had always intended on having instead of only those now who can afford her art. All artists at one point or another have been through the "starving artist phase" but to me its those that don't lose their heads when they reach the top that are the real artists.