Peter Max visits Austin during ACL 2010

Peter Max, a legendary German-born American artist who worked with the Beatles and has painted for six U.S. Presidents, came to Austin, TX this weekend. He made a cover for the Austin Chronicle featuring ACL 2010 festival.
He had a personal art show at Russell Collection, a fine art gallery on West 6th street. I met him there Saturday evening.
Peter, who turns 73 years this month, was very approachable, yet looked a little bit tired. After a short conversation, I asked him what advice he can give to an aspiring artist who wants to achieve the same level of commercial success as he did.


He gave me a couple advices:

Don’t listen to anyone who tells you what to do and how to do it. Do what you want to do, create what feels right to you.

Surround yourself with the people who can help you. You can’t do everything by yourself. The circle is very important. I thought of a saying “If you want to fly with the eagles, don’t swim with the ducks.” Obvious but so true! Another reminder about the power of social connections…