Nancy Spero
Becoming an Artist

I felt doomed to be an artist early on,

because of the way I drew
all over the margins of my textbooks

rather than actually doing the classwork.

I was never interested
in doing anything else.

I hadn't liked high school,

I hadn't liked university,

but I LOVED art school.

So that's when I decided to be an artist,

just to go at it.

But I was kind of worried
about being an artist.

That was the only thing I felt I could do,
was draw and paint.

and it was the only thing I wanted to do.

And yet for some strange reason

I think I felt that
it wasn't of use to society.