08/04/25
In 1969, Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe were dead broke and in desperate need of a place to sleep.
They’d heard through a friend you could exchange art for a room at the Chelsea Hotel. Stanley Bard, the hotel’s manager, accepted this deal for awhile.
Until one day when they came home and found their artwork leaning against the wall.
Here’s how Smith described the moment in Just Kids:
“I couldn't be sure if Bard had even looked at the work. Certainly if he had, he didn't see it with my eyes. Each drawing, each collage, reaffirmed my faith in our ability. The work was good. We deserved to be here.”
Though momentarily discouraged, they never stopped. They kept going. They kept creating. They kept drawing. They kept writing. They kept making art for themselves and for each other.
A few years later, Patti Smith’s poetic style of songwriting would help define the New York City punk rock movement. Her debut album Horses is considered a wildly influential piece of rock history.
Robert Mapplethorpe would go on to become one of the most provocative visual artists of the 20th century.
Here’s the lesson.
Never stop creating what you like.
Because if you like it, someone else will too.
Sometimes you’re simply doing it for an audience that doesn’t exist yet.