Here are some interesting quotes from some interesting artists…for no reason other than there is no one else sitting in my living room right now and I feel like talking art.
“When I am in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing. It is only after a sort of “get acquainted” period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.”
Jackson Pollock
“I’m not an abstractionist. I’m not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on.”
Mark Rothko
“It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism. There is no such thing as good painting about nothing.”
Mark Rothko
“There’s only one thing in life for a woman; it’s to be a mother…. A woman artist must be … capable of making primary sacrifices.”
Mary Cassatt
“One may have a blazing hearth in one’s soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.”
Vincent Van Gogh
“Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility.”
Pablo Picasso
(that’s a self-portrait…not what you think of when you think of Picasso, eh?!)
As you were saying: