My favorite non Art quote

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. Groucho Marx

3 by de Kooning

I paint the way I do because I can keep on putting more and more things in – like drama, pain, anger, love, a figure, a horse, my ideas of space. It doesn't matter if it differs from mine, as long as it comes from the painting, which has its own integrity and intensity. (Willem de Kooning)




I The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves. (Willem de Kooning)




What you do when you paint, you take a brush full of paint, get paint on the picture, and you have faith. (Willem de Kooning)

de Kooning

Materials

I put my trust in the materials that confront me, because they put me in touch with the unknown. It's then that I begin to work... when I don't have the comfort of sureness and certainty. (Robert Rauschenberg)

Robert Rauschenberg

Knowing and not knowing

You can count how many seeds are in the apple, but not how many apples are in the seed. (Ken Kesey)

Paul Cezanne

obsession

I don't see how you can create and not have the feeling that it is the most important, all-consuming thing. (Grace Hartigan)

Accept

I have come to terms with a lot of things, because, when all's said and done, there's really very little one can do about a lot of things. You just accept them. The point is you just have to keep on working and you just have to keep on living. (Jim Dine)

Jim Dine’s “Blind Owl” (2000), charcoal and oil, is among the modern works collected by Eugene V. Thaw and his wife, Clare.

follow your heart

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. (Steve Jobs)

j renee' benda

Humility

I believe that the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his own powers. But really great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not in them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other man and are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly merciful. (John Ruskin)




The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel. (Piet Mondrian)

We are all beginners

The beginner's humility and openness lead to exploration. Exploration leads to accomplishment. All of it begins at the beginning, with the first small and scary step. (Julia Cameron)

Every new canvas, lump of clay, piece or wood is a new beginning. Every new day is a new creative opportunity to be embraced. It starts with a single mark, decision or practice.

Is painting dead?

Sometimes I wonder.
As a painter when I look about it feels that there is so much contrived art.
I ask myself what is left?
Then I came across this quote:

Maybe poets express more directly a sense of sympathy for other human beings. Painting is a little bit more of a retreat from human beings in real life; painting is more about the extreme moments when speech doesn't help anymore. (Francesco Clemente)

Francesco Clemente

More on time

We work not only to produce but to give value to time. (Eugene Delacroix)

Paul Gauguin

The public wants to understand and learn in a single day, a single minute, what the artist has spent years learning. (Paul Gauguin)


People have inquired about how long an art piece has taken, as if it has more value the longer it takes to create.
I often say it has taken me 30 years to paint that picture. Everything I did or learnt was leading up to that creation.

how we spend our time

Two hallmarks of a healthy life are the abilities to love and to work. Each requires imagination. (Sigmund Freud)



Art is a continuous activity with no separation between past and present. (Henry Moore)

Henry Moore

Creativity occurs in the moment, and in the moment we are timeless. (Julia Cameron)