Blew my mind years back in grad school, watching artists age 30 and up being rattled by professors criticizing their work.

As though these current art students hadn’t been making art their entire lives.

As though there was any authority left anywhere in academic art.

Talking only about the authentic artists now, which comprised most of the students in the major-institution MFA program I was enrolled in.

I’ve never had any doubt whatsoever that I’m an artist. If you’ve been making art all your life, you are, too. Just believe it.

That being the case, whatever anyone says about us or our work, it’s just another opinion, no matter who they are. It might be helpful, or it might not. But there’s absolutely no authority in art now.

Our opinions — talking true, authentic opinions, not prevarications, not posturing, not rhetoric, but things we truly believe about art — are as valid as anyone else’s.

In Modernism, the authorities of art were critics, academics, certain collectors.

In Contemporary Art, the artists are the only authorities.

Believe it.