
Encouraging words from Degas about AI
“Without a heart, can one not be an artist?” – Edgar Degas I heard this quote in Sebastian Smee’s book The Art of Rivalry. It was in the context of Degas’s reputation for being a misogynist and having an aversion to love and marriage. He said and wrote things that seemed to show at least some sentimentality and softness, including the quote above, and an anecdote about when he and Monet argued about who cared for Berthe Morisot more as they organized a retrospective after her death. I wrote the quote in my Commonplace Notebook for future reference. AI seems to come up in conversation with more and more regularity, especially when it comes to creative work. Will AI make artists, writers, filmmakers, designers, and the like obsolete? One of my commission clients sent me an AI-produced “oil painting” of her dog, and I have to admit, it was a









