In September 2012 I spoke at Ignite Charlotte 5 — one of those wonderful formats where you get 20 slides, 15 seconds each, and exactly five minutes to make your point before the slides move on without you.
My talk was called How To Get Pretty Much Anyone To Do Pretty Much Anything, but it was really about empathy. Specifically: that there are always two valid points of view, and that the ability to genuinely inhabit someone else’s perspective — not just tolerate it, but really stand in it — is the most powerful skill a person can develop. The 6 and the 9 in this slide are the same number. It just depends on where you’re standing.
Looking back, I think I was also describing what I do in the studio. My paintings live in the threshold between states — between what is and what could be, between one thing and another. That space only exists if you’re willing to see from more than one position. Empathy isn’t just a social skill. For me, it turns out it’s also an artistic one.