Stained Glass Gummy Worms

David Byrne

2001

ink jet print, Epson Archival Inks, edition of 100, to benefit the Center for New Media, Maryland Institute College of Art

NFS

How to Be an Artist

Jerry Saltz

Random House, 2020

$18

Although he may be best known as a musician, David Byrne is also a writer, filmmaker and visual artist. When Byrne installed an exhibition of his photographs at the Maryland Institute College of Art in the fall 2001, where Anthony Cervino (co-director of Ejecta Projects) was then the Assistant Director of Exhibitions, Byrne produced a limited-edition and affordable series of photographs. Tony worked closely with David Byrne on the installation of the exhibition and came home from work that week with one of his signed prints, Stained Glass Gummy Worms. The work is now a reminder of our brush with a successful artist, a master of many disciplines.

For those of us who haven’t achieved the artistic success of David Byrne, we can turn to art critic Jerry Saltz for advice on How to be an Artist. Saltz’s first lesson is “Don’t Be Embarrassed.” He writes, “I get it. Making art can be humiliating, terrifying, leave you feeling foul, exposed, like getting naked in front of someone else for the first time. You often reveal things about yourself that others may find appalling, weird, boring, or stupid. People may think you’re abnormal or a hack. Fine. When I work, I feel sick to my stomach with thoughts like None of this is any good. It makes no sense. But art doesn’t have to make sense. It doesn’t even need to be good. So, don’t worry about being smart and let go of being ‘good.’” 

Jerry Saltz is the senior art critic at New York magazine and its entertainment site Vulture. He is the winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Criticism. David Byrne is a singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, artist, actor, writer, music theorist, and filmmaker, who was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of the American new wave band Talking Heads.