Sometimes, maybe both?

"Art is not a thing; it is a way."
- Elbert Hubbard

Whatever nature presents...

Asher Brown Durand, a champion for drawing with as much realism as possible, wrote, "Let [the artist] scrupulously accept whatever [nature] presents him until he shall, in a degree, have become intimate with her infinity...never let him profane her sacredness by a willful departure from truth."

A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men.

• Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces ~ Judith Viorst
• Caramels are only a fad. Chocolate is a permanent thing ~ Milton Snavely Hershey

A bit pricey for casual snacking, perhaps, but a chocolate skull? Now that's cool!


(* quotes supplied by VirtualChocolate)

A good one

"If you can't be brave, be determined, and you'll end up in the same place."

Thanks, but no.

Today's "Art Quote of The Day" comes from Lionel Trilling*:

Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal.

You know, if I believed that for an instant, I'd chuck every last pencil, paintbrush, and drawing I own right out the window. Because I'd rather not be an artist if it meant that. Fortunately, I know it's not true.

*Trilling was a literary critic, for Pete's sake. Bah.

Special, huh?

“The artist . . . will always be a special, isolated, solitary agent with an innate sense of organising matter.” — Odilon Redon

Quotes

I believe that if it were left to artists to choose their own labels, most would choose none.
Ben Shahn (1898 - 1969)

Artists can color the sky red because they know it's blue. Those of us who aren't artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we're stupid.
Jules Feiffer (1929 - )

Quotes

These caught my eye (and mind) in recent weeks:

"Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better." - Andre Gide

"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The test of an adventure is that when you’re in the middle of it, you say to yourself, ”Oh, now I’ve got myself into an awful mess; I wish I were sitting quietly at home.“ And the sign that something’s wrong with you is when you sit quietly at home wishing you were out having lots of adventure. ” - Thornton Wilder (found at DannyGregory.com)


I think I want a shirt that says "Creatively Maladjusted". Or, maybe a coffee mug...

For a good chuckle

Overheard at Art Festivals

"Well, I really hate this art, but can I have that one for half price?"

The artist is a receptacle

The artist is a receptacle for the emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web. - Pablo Picasso

Foot Angle

The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.
~ Leonardo da Vinci

Art and love

The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others. Vincent Van Gogh

In our life there is a single color, as on an artist’s palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love.
Marc Chagall

I think one’s art goes as far and as deep as one’s love goes.
Andrew Wyeth

Artists on Art

“No artists are part of a movement. Unless they are followers. And then they are unnecessary and doing unnecessary art. If they are exploring in an ‘individual way’ with ‘different ideas’ the idea of another individual, they are making a worthy contribution, but as soon as they call themselves followers or accept the truths they have not explored as truths, they are defeating the purpose of art as an individual expression — Art as art.”

Artists on Art

On so many levels

“…it makes me think of vulnerability. Of taking the risk of exposing yourself to ridicule, pain, heartbreak, suffering, all the things you spend your life’s energy trying to protect yourself from. What an act of courage it is to open yourself to what you fear most, so that you can swim in the river of life instead of being a bystander. For some of us, it’s an act that needs to be performed every single moment, over and over again.” - Wally Torta, artist and all-around smart guy. (Reprinted here with permission.)

A passion for pencils

Consider the pencil . The ubiquitous, yellow (mostly), seven-inch, two-for-a-quarter lead pencil-the simplest, most convenient, least expensive of all writing instruments. The most useful, least-appreciated, most stolen article in the world.. The foot soldier of writing. Servant of poet and banker alike. Companion of deep-sea diver and astronaut. Mightier than the pen or the sword. Nevertheless , the pencil is taken for granted-as though it had no mystery, no background, no wonder. The wood-cased pencil is, perhaps, man's closest approach to perfection. The modern pencil can draw a line 35 miles long, write an average of 45,000 words and absorb 17 sharpening. It is nearly weight-less and totally portable. It deletes its own errors but does not give off radiation. It doesn't leak and never needs a ribbon change, isn't subject to power surges, and is chewable. You could eat one every day without harming yourself. Any legal document that does not expressly forbid it can be executed with a pencil. ~ Abdullah Ismail, Venus Pencil Co.

Perfect.

"We’re artists with a small 'a.' My fans own my ass, that’s with a small 'a,' too." - Berk Breathed in Psychology Today

Quotes

I passionately hate the idea of being “with it”, I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time. Orson Welles

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. Pablo Picasso

An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world. George Santayana

The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again… William Faulkner