In the 1950s, a group of pioneering American artists moved into the abandoned lofts on the run-down waterfront of Lower Manhattan, forming a studio community known as The Coenties Slip. In 1957, after earning her MA in Art Education, minimalist painter Agnes Martin joined The Slip and began creating some of her most iconic works. By the mid-60s, her work was hanging on the walls of the world’s finest galleries and museums.

Work That Matters

After hearing a few lectures on Zen Buddhism at Columbia, Agnes became inspired by Eastern ideals of simplicity, harmony, and balance—principles that became the blueprint of her work and the guiding pillars of her life.

Agnes’s paintings were portraits of her inner tranquility—travel logs documenting her quest for peace.

In 1967, while battling schizophrenia and at the height of her career, Agnes traded the buzzing streets of New York for the quiet desert plains of New Mexico. She left painting behind and started writing and meditating.

She settled in Cuba, New Mexico, where she built her own adobe house and lived in near-complete isolation. Cuba was more than a home for Agnes. It was a spiritual retreat—an escape from the pressures, noise, and egos of the art world. Seven years later, she would return to her craft, recommitting to making work that was joyful, pure, and honest.

Today, Most Creative Work Is Noise

Artists used to fight for gallery space and peace. Now, they fight for digital hearts and internet clout. This war for attention has led to the mass manufacturing of creativity. Creators are cranking out cheap, plastic content made for algorithms instead of creating work that matters and leaving this world better than they found it.

How To Create Work That Matters

Although Agnes lived a hermetic life, she gave several interviews, taught many lectures, and left behind valuable notes on her creative process.

Put Your Art Before Your Ego

“The worst thing you can think about when you’re working is yourself,” an 85-year-old Martin said in an interview.

For Agnes Martin, moving to New Mexico was more than a physical move. It was a shift in consciousness. Her focus went from chasing fame, money, and clout to creating work that mattered.

“I have sometimes, in my mind, put myself ahead of my work and have suffered in consequence,” she once wrote. “I thought me, me and I suffered and the work suffered and for that I suffered more.”

That quote brings tears to my eyes.

As an artist, it's your job to protect your message from noise. Noise is the enemy. It creeps in from the outside, but can also arise from within—often as an urge for comparison.

Don’t Compare Yourself to Others

Comparison is creative poison.

I’ve met many creatives who have given up on their dreams simply because they didn’t have as many followers as X or their work didn’t get as many likes as Y’s. They got caught up in the noise.

Confusing vanity metrics with quality work is its own sin.

“If Picasso crosses your mind while you’re painting, it’s all over,” Agnes Martin once told her longtime gallerist, Arne Glimcher.

Agnes understood the creative process is as personal as the spiritual journey, and no two paths—even if headed in the same direction—are the same.

Your job as an artist isn't to judge or compare. Your job is to create.

Build a Creative Sanctuary

Creativity thrives in protected, sacred spaces.

Agnes recommends a space with no distractions, dedicated to clearing the mind, where one is “to be disturbed only if the house is burning.”

“A studio is not a place in which to talk to friends. You will hate your friends if they destroy the atmosphere of your studio,” she wrote in a handwritten note. “It is almost hopeless to expect clarity of mind. It is hopeless if your studio atmosphere cannot be preserved.”

Do you have a workspace? Is it free of clutter, noise, and distraction?

Having an office, studio, or nook isn't enough. You must also protect and respect your workspace by keeping it tidy, organized, and free of clutter—empty of noise.

Like Agnes, I'm cutting down distractions, slowing down my pace, and moving away from the noise to focus on what matters.

I invite you to do the same.

—Santi

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