A few weeks ago I was asked to be a guest lecturer at my alma mater, Northern Illinois University in DeKalb Illinois. I spoke to a class of about 80 teenagers who were attending a summer art program. I gave a presentation that lasted about 50 minutes in length. The overarching theme for my presentation was PASSION. If they were considering a career in the visual arts, I tried to convey to them the importance of passion. Let's face it to be successful in anything you must have passion for what you do and never being satisfied with the status quo.
As a professional artist, my journey has not always been easy and I wanted them to understand that having the perseverance to push yourself and being passionate can make all the difference. It's not enough that you were born with the gift of creativity, you have to continue to push yourself beyond your comfort zone and constantly build new skills.
Hopefully I was successful in reaching my audience to have passion in whatever they decided to do. Life challenges all of us in one form or another. It's what we decide to do with these challenges that define us.
Here is little excerpt of the presentation. Unfortunately the footage quality is not great.