enlarge Jill Brady/Staff Photographer

Amanda Clark of Nashua, N.H., poses with her grandparents, June and Frank Clark of Salem, Mass., at the commencement for about 77 undergraduate and graduate students.

enlarge Jill Brady/Staff Photographer

Graduates, from left, Drew Romeo, Michelle Testa, Sarah Yakawonis and Joseph Baldini wait to receive their bachelor of fine arts degrees during the Maine College of Art ceremony Sunday at Merrill Auditorium in Portland.

Artists have an obligation to repair, Stuart Kestenbaum, director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, told graduates of the Maine College of Art on Sunday.

"Literally and figuratively, we can stitch what was torn," Kestenbaum, a poet and the keynote speaker, said during the college's commencement at Merrill Auditorium.

The college graduated about 65 bachelor of fine arts students and about a dozen master of fine arts students. They entered the auditorium to the Latin rhythms of Primo Cubano, a local band, rather than the usual "Pomp and Circumstance."

Most eschewed gowns and mortarboards in favor of street clothes or more exuberant outfits, including a star-spangled dress.

While advice often plays a big role in commencement speeches, Kestenbaum chose to offer his in a list of 23 items, using his guess of the graduates' average age to arrive at the number.

Some of his advice was aimed at artists specifically. "Next time you have to write an artist's statement, tell a story instead," he said. "It's not just us. It's the materials, too," he reminded them.

Other items could apply to people in all sorts of fields. Those included, "Deadlines are our friends," "Let silence talk to you" and "Give back what was given to you" – which, he said, applies to more than borrowed tools.

Then there was the category of advice we should all follow but many fail to do: "Wear a seat belt and don't skimp on tires" and "Pay off your credit cards."

Bradly Werley, the speaker for the bachelor of fine arts class, addressed any nervousness his fellow graduates might be feeling.

He encouraged the group, whom he characterized as "a collective of visionaries," to think of the moment not as an ending but a beginning. And he urged them to not settle.

"For the billionth time," he told them, "you have only one shot at this life."