Advice to Young Artists in a Post Modern Era

I've been reading a lot this week in attempts to switch my brain  functioning from Blues Clues and Dora the Explorer to Art making and teaching effectively.  I've read 3 books already this week.  One that I'm flying through is Advice to Young Artists in a Post Modern Era by William V. Dunning with Ben Mahmoud.  It has really validated and solidified a lot of my approaches and methodology.  He makes very good points about how students expect us to somehow mold them into great artists without any work on their end.  In his book Taking the Leap, author Cay Lang asserts "To be a successful artist you need three things: curiosity, commitment, and good work habits." In an antidote he relays how he knew he was really meant to be an artist, quoting an instructor saying "An artist can't stop himself.  He really has no choice about it.", and his realization that being an artist isn't necessarily meaning working in the studio every day.  An artist can be a person who works or who doesn't work. However, the true artist has no choice about it, if they are not making art, they are thinking about making art or chastising themselves for not making art. As we begin the new semester, I am looking forward to making artwork, but also to inspire my students to BE CURIOUS, MAKE A LIFE LONG COMMITMENT TO THEIR ART AND ESTABLISH GOOD WORKING HABITS!