This post reflects on the writer’s journey as a young artist, discussing the importance of mentorship and serendipitous reading. It advocates exploring texts outside the vocational canon to enrich understanding and foster interesting conversations. Examples of insightful biographies highlight how stories can enhance theoretical knowledge, emphasizing the role of wonder in vocational discernment.
Once upon a time, when I was a young painter just beginning a graduate program, a generous pastor and theologian invited me into a mentoring relationship when he noticed I was reading James Atlas’ biography of the American poet and writer Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966). Lou Reed had written a song I liked—“My House” on The Blue Mask, released in 1982—about his friend and teacher Schwartz, so I wanted to know more about Schwartz’s life. My mentor and I soon discovered we shared an interest in listening to music, and the following Christmas, he gifted me a copy of Schwartz’s In Dreams Begin Responsibilities.
At that time, I was also struggling with what I understood to be my calling as a young artist, and I was still a long way away from thinking about vocation as a collection of concepts. My mentor counseled me to think of my calling as service and doxology—that is, an expression of praise to God—and was very firm about the relative spiritual value of my calling, regardless of the perceived lack of its economic potential. He read mostly philosophy, and I read mostly critical art theory, but we found common ground in the biography of a cultural legend. Our shared exploration illustrates how reading outside the canon of vocational topics is good for creating opportunities to have interesting conversations that can lead back to vocation.
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