creativity

Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art.

Leonardo da Vinci

You cannot explain me with "isms."  They are very bad
for an artist.  What one must believe in is color.

Marc Chagall

Were art to redeem humanity it could do so only by saving us from
the seriousness of life and restoring to us an unexpected childishness.

Jose Ortega y Gasset

Somebody was saying to Picasso that he ought to make pictures of things
the way they are--objective pictures.  He mumbled that he wasn't quite sure
what that would be.  The person who was bullying him produced a photograph
of his wife from his wallet and said, "There, you see, that is a picture of how she
really is."  Picasso looked at it and said, "She is rather small, isn't she?  And flat?"

Gregory Bateson

It is only the untalented director who imagines him or herself in every part,
wants his or her own thoughts and emotions portrayed; it is only the
untalented who make their own limitations those of the actors as well.

Liv Ullman

The artist must be in his or her work as God is in creation, invisible
and all-powerful; his or her presence should be felt everywhere,
but the artist must never be seen.

Gustave Flaubert

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If you have ever sat on a mountaintop and surveyed the country below,
you must realize that what you saw was even more beautiful because of
the awesome silence which surrounded you.  Art galleries maintain a quiet
because curators realize that a painting viewed in the midst of noise is less
beautiful than when it is contemplated in the midst of silence.  One really
cannot appreciate the great art treasures housed in museums on days when
noisy crowds gather around every object to be viewed. . . . The beauty
of art will show itself in greater force in the midst of silence.  Not only does
silence enhance the beauty of art, but adds to the experience its own sublime beauty.

Karl Pruter

Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl.  An artist can look at a
pretty girl and see the old woman she will become.  A better artist can look at
an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be.  But a great artist--
a master--and that is what Auguste Rodin was--can look at an old woman, portray
her exactly as she is. . . and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be. . .
and more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo, or
even you, see that this lovely young girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply
imprisoned inside her ruined body.  He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy
that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart. . . no
matter what the merciless hours have done to her.  Look at her, Ben.  Growing old
doesn't matter to you and me; we were never meant to be admired--but it does to them.

Robert A. Heinlein

We talk too much.  We should talk less and draw more.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Art is a deliberate recreation of a new and special reality that grows
from your response to life. It cannot be copied; it must be created.

unattributed