Quotations By and About Artists

Random quotes about art. They may or may not be exact.. When I can, I'll note the source.

“Sculpture is something you bump into when you back up to look at a painting.” Ad Reinhardt

“The world doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?” Pablo Picasso

"My art becomes a way of telling myself the questions I am dealing with in my life, a means of self-reflection... That is a big issue in art--the issue of content versus not necessarily the form, but something to do with the realization of a self-fulfilled form which conveys aesthetic feeling." Barbara T. Smith, in Nancy Buchanan, "Barbara Smith:Communication/Communion, the Portrait Review," Monogram 5 (June 1976)


"We are always innocent, unless, from laziness or for convenience, we decide to overlook the novelty of the moment, this particular now." Brian Eno, May 1987 (printed in "Opal Information #5)

“No great artist ever sees things as they really are.  If he did, he would cease to be a great artist.” Oscar Wilde

“In art as in love, instinct is enough. ” Anatole France

“Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist.”  René Magritte

“A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world.”  Edmond De Goncourt

“All artists are willing to suffer for their work. But why are so few prepared to learn to draw?”  Banksy
  
"Inside you there's an artist you don't know about. He's not interested in how things look different in moonlight. " Auguste Rodin

“I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.”  Marcel Duchamp

“The business of art lies just in this, -- to make that understood and felt which, in the form of an argument, might be incomprehensible and inaccessible.”  Leo Tolstoy in What is Art? 

"Painting is stronger than I am. It makes me do what it wants." Pablo Picasso

“Art is, after all, only a trace – like a footprint which shows that one has walked bravely and in great happiness.”  Robert Henri

“What you see is what you see.”  Frank Stella

“Works of art, in my opinion, are the only objects in the material universe to possess internal order, and that is why, though I don't believe that only art matters, I do believe in Art for Art's sake.”  E.M. Forster

“To be an artist means never to avert one's eyes.” Akira Kurosawa

"I love black, but the best blacks with the most meaning can only be done in full light of day--noontime blacks. Dark vision demands its own clarity. I am never agitated in executing forms, but travel rather as if the terrain of the paper was land-mined. When this journey is completed, a drawing is born." Rico Lebrun, "Notes on Drawing," in Rico Lebrun: Drawings (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961), p. 23

“I don't paint dreams or nightmares, I paint my own reality.”  Frida Kahlo

“It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection.” Oscar Wilde

“The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.” Robert Henri

“Art is science made clear.”  Jean Cocteau

"With Vishnu and Brahma, Shiva is part of the trinity of the Hindu universe and represents the male principle. While he is essentially a passive, self-contained figure, Shiva also embodies the processes of destruction and regeneration; his title as lord of the lingam is but one indication of his potency and capacity for creation and rebirth. Shakti, his consort is female and active. She represents desire, movement, and change and upholds the cosmos through "vibration". Julian Cox, "Intimate Visions," in Spirit into Matter: The Photographs of Edmund Teske (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2004), p. 24.

“If you could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint.”  Edward Hopper

“What was any art but a mold to imprison for a moment the shining elusive element which is life itself- life hurrying past us and running away, to strong to stop, too sweet to lose.” Willa Cather

“Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artists metaphysical value judgments.”  Ayn Rand in The Fountainhead

“An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need to have but that he - for some reason - thinks it would be a good idea to give them.”  Andy Warhol

“A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual. ” Vladimir Nabokov

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out. ”  Ray Bradbury

" I feel I'm finished when I get the impression I'm working on somebody else's painting." Lucien Freud, Gayford, Martin (2007, Sept. 22). "Lucian Freud: marathon man". Telegraph.co.uk. 

“One eye sees, the other feels.”  Paul Klee

“True alchemy lies in this formula: ‘Your memory and your senses are but the nourishment of your creative impulse’.”  Arthur Rimbaud in Illuminations

“The way to create art is to burn and destroy ordinary concepts and to substitute them with new truths that run down from the top of the head and out of the heart.”  Charles Bukowski

“Art is either revolution or plagiarism.”  Paul Gauguin

"Ms. Gilot clearly was a competent painter, but whereas, with Picasso, it seems that every painting is an adventure, every mark or stroke the registration of a thought or impulse in real time, her works resemble dutifully completed assignments for a class in how to paint like Picasso." Johnson, Ken (2012, May 11) "A Portrait of the Artist As an Old Man in Love", The New York Times, p. C29

Life isn't a support system for art. It's the other way around.”  Stephen King in On Writing

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

“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.” Leonardo da Vinci

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”  Thomas Merton in  No Man Is an Island

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”  Edgar Degas

“I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of the chaos. The pictures they paint, the music they compose, the books they write, and the lives they lead. Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art.”  W. Somerset Maugham in The Painted Veil

“Art is not a thing; it is a way. ”  Elbert Hubbard

“Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument. To perform this difficult office it is sometimes necessary for him to sacrifice happiness and everything that makes life worth living for the ordinary human being.”  C.G. Jung

“We work in the dark - we do what we can - we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.”  Henry James in The Middle Years

“Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.”  Henri Cartier-Bresson

“To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.”  Edward Weston

“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.”  Émile Zola

“If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes.”  Pablo Picasso

“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”  C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity

“You don’t make art out of good intentions.”  Gustave Flaubert

“There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.”  Pablo Picasso

"The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”  Kurt Vonnegut in A Man Without a Country

“Color is my daylong obsession, joy, and torment.” Claude Monet

“Paradoxically though it may seem, it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” Oscar Wilde

“Creativity takes courage. ”  Henri Matisse

“There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun.”  Pablo Picasso

“It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance, and I know of no substitute for the force and beauty of it's process.”  Henry James

“We have art in order not to die of the truth.”  Friedrich Nietzsche

“The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists. Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little.”  Banksy

“Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.”  Jean Cocteau

“The absence of limitations is the enemy of art.”  Orson Welles

“Art is the proper task of life. ”  Friedrich Nietzsche

“The chief enemy of creativity is good sense.”  Pablo Picasso

“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.”  Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray

"To do a dangerous thing with style is what I call art." Charles Bukowski

“Imagination rules the world.”  Napoleon Bonaparte

“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

“Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it.”  Pope John Paul II

“God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style, He just goes on trying other things.”  Pablo Picasso

“Like any artist without an art form, she became dangerous.”  Toni Morrison

“Why shouldn’t art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world.”  Pierre Auguste Renoir

“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” Aristotle

“When art critics get together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine.”  Pablo Picasso

“You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life.” Joan Miró

“Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction." Pablo Picasso

“A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.”  Albert Camus

“A line is a dot that went for a walk.” Paul Klee

“Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing? Can one really explain this? No. Just as one can never learn how to paint.”  Pablo Picasso

“In the haunted house of life, art is the only stair that doesn’t squeak.”  Tom Robbins in Skinny Legs and All

“I don't want my work to be an exposure of my feelings.” Jasper Johns

“All art is a kind of confession, more or less oblique. All artists, if they are to survive, are forced, at last, to tell the whole story; to vomit the anguish up.”  James Baldwin

“Without atmosphere a painting is nothing.” Rembrandt Van Rijn

“The artist's job is not to succumb to despair but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence.” Woody Allen

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”  Michelangelo Buonarroti

“I force myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.” Marcel Duchamp

“The role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them.”  Anton Chekhov

“Art is everywhere you look for it, hail the twinkling stars for they are God's careless splatters”  El Greco

“He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.” St. Francis of Assisi

Free Online Tools to Enlarge Photos

I'm working on an etching project and wanted to incorporate imagery that I found on the web. Unfortunately after I cropped it down to the small part of the image I actually wanted to use it was too small to be visible. Enlarging it required more time & Photoshop expertise than I have, so I searched around for online solutions and came up with the following:

Reshade is a  quick and easy online resizer. You can choose to use files from your computer or from the web. Without an account you can upload up to 3 images a day, and you can't crop them. It's quick, easy & had not downsides that I could find.

I also found PhotoZoomPro 4, a program that seems to do the same thing, but at  $219 is more than I want to spend for just an occasional need.

I also read about SmillaEnlarger. The author's website was down when I tried to look into it, but I read so many things about it online that I decided to try it and found a free download here http://smillaenlarger.en.softonic.com/. (Just be careful to read all the messages when you download it here, they try to get you to add a bunch of extra stuff that probably makes money for somebody but I didn't want cluttering up my desktop.) So far it's been amazing. You just drag an image from your computer & decide how big you want it to be based on a percentage zoom factor, specified height or width,  or other options to stretch or fit within boundaries. I haven't used it much, but what I've done as been surprisingly easy and straightforward for a free program. I highly recommend it!

image before enlarging

Quick Tip: Get the Wrinkles Out of a Stretched Artist's Canvas

I discovered a quick way to get wrinkles out of an artist's canvas that has been stretched, gessoed and even had light layer of paint applied.

I'd bought a bunch of canvases at the 1 cent sale at Aaron Brothers that had been sitting around for a while. I pulled a 12" x 36" canvas out to paint today and noticed it had some wrinkles and sags in one of the corners. I hoped they'd work themselves out, but after putting on a light undercoat of paint they became even more visible.

Fortunately it's a warm sunny day today so I took the canvas outside, turned it so that the stretcher bars were facing up & sprayed the whole thing with a light mist of water. It was well saturated, but not dripping. I laid it on a table, again with the stretcher bars facing up, and within about 10 minutes the wrinkles were gone. I was afraid the gesso & paint might prevent the canvas from shrinking to fit, but it wasn't a problem.

Easy fix. For a change....

Free Pattern for Knit Slouchy Hat

Thanks to some helpful comments on Ravelry I've updated my free Slouchy Hat Pattern and thought I'd post the new pattern here. I hadn't looked at the pattern in years, and when I recently did the crown shaping instructions made absolutely no sense. Hopefully these improvements work....

I saw a similar hat in one of my favorite hat books:

It's in the book as number 0450, The Sloppy Joe, Designed by Woolly Wormhead. The book doesn't have patterns (athough as I just checked her site, the original pattern is available to here for £2.50, and would have saved me all sorts of time had I thought then to look for it....) But even so, the yarn I had didn't require the same size needles. And I didn't want an i-cord tag at the top. And I wanted a 2 x 2 rib band. All that said, the book is hugely inspirational and one I highly recommend for the "I need an idea" section of your knitting library.

If you're on Ravelry you can  download the pattern here. If not you can just print this page.

 EASY SLOUCHY HAT

Twisted Sisters Jazz Handpaint, 1 skein each color 60 & 69

#6 Needles Double Pointed Needles

Gauge: 4” = 20 stitches and 24 rows

CO 96

For entire hat do 2 row stripes alternating colors 60 and 69.

Work 2 x 2 rib for 1 1/2”

Increase 8 stitches. (104 stitches)

Work stockinette until 9 1/2” from beginning.

Crown

On the next round (work 24 sts, k2tog) 4 times. [100 sts]

Work one round even.

Shape crown as described below.

Round 1: *Work 8, k2tog. Repeat from * around. [90 sts remain]

Round 2: Work even

Round 3: *Work 7, k2tog. Repeat from * around. [80 sts remain]

Round 4: Work even

Round 5: *Work 6, k2tog. Repeat from * around. [70 sts remain]

Round 6: Work even

Round 7: *Work 5, k2tog. Repeat from * around. [60 sts remain]

Round 8: Work even

Round 9: *Work 4, k2tog. Repeat from * around. [50 sts remain]

Round 10: Work even

Round 11: *Work 3, k2tog. Repeat from * around. [40 sts remain]

Round 12: Work even

Round 13: *Work 2, k2tog. Repeat from * around. [30 sts remain]

Round 14: Work even

Round 15: *Work 1, k2tog. Repeat from * around. [20 sts remain]

Round 16: Work even

Round 17: *K2tog. Repeat from * around. [10 sts remain]

Finishing

Cut yarn, leaving a generous tail. Draw tail through remaining stitches on the needle. Pull gently to close hole. Weave in tail. Weave in ends.

Updated 4/15/12

Art and Craft Products Suggestions

I'm putting all the products I like to use in one place so it's easier to see where to buy the art and craft supplies I use most.

In my opinion the best one-stop shop for art supplies. I find their prices to consistently be the best around.


I always check Amazon's prices since I've found they're often the lowest.








**Disclosure: Some of these links are through affiliate programs, for which I get a small referral fee. But that in no way affects what I use or list here.

Torn Photo ATCs

I made four Artist Trading Cards for the Torn Photo ATC Swap on the ATCs for All.

It was an interesting process and required all the discipline I could gather to just glue the photo onto a plain backing and not slather it with mixed media collage elements. I'm clearly stuck doing the same, familiar things over and over, and trying to make myself believe that I'm changing things by using different materials. But it's still the same process. So this was a welcome, if slightly uncomfortable change.

2012-9  "Torn Photo ATC #1: Granny"

 The first card ended up being very simple. With just a slight skew to the image to make it appear a bit jarring.

2012-10 "Torn Photo ATC #2: Granny and Great-Grandfather"

Tried to go a little farther this time. But feels like I did the really obvious thing in switching heads around.

2012-11 "Torn Photo ATC #3: Granny/Baby"

For this one I tried to not look so much at the imagery, but at the way the shapes and colors and torn edges and use those elements for the composition. I still see things and immediately name them (head, arm etc.) which is keeping me from seeing it as much as an abstraction as I'd like.

2012-12  "Torn Photo ATC #4: Chicken Coop"

Like this the best of them all as far as having interesting lines and intersections of lines and shapes. Glad I stuck through it. Good exercise in abstraction that I can see using to develop drawings and paintings. Glad to get away from my tried and true mixed media collage. And it's a great way to upcycle all those old photos that aren't interesting enough to keep for the imagery, but that you still can't part with because they're family heirlooms and mementos of earlier times in your personal history.

Flower ATC's

a random assortment of Artist Trading Cards I've done using flower images and themes:

2011-91 "White Flower" ATC

 Rubber stamp, embossing inks, pen and ink, marker and stamp pads on bristol.

2011-92 "Yellow Flower" ATC

 Rubber stamp, embossing inks and marker on bristol.

2011-93 "White Flower #2" ATC

Rubber stamp, embossing ink and marker on bristol.

Vintage ATCs

a random assortment of Artist Trading Cards I've made using vintage images and/or themes:

2011-90 "Emotional Intensity" ATC

Vintage photos, text from Carl Jung's "Man and His Symbols" using encaustic, acrylic & metallic markers on watercolor paper.

Universal Craft Blog Directory

If you have a crafty blog, join here. Or if you're looking for an extensive list of crafty blogs visit!.

Freeform Afghan - Second Version

Finished! My second attempt at a Freeform Blanket

10/18/10: 

I’m starting a new blanket - trying to do a bit more “controlled” freeform than I have in the past. I’m wanting something that’s a bit calmer and more serene - not quite as tumultuous and busy as the last one. I’m wanting something linear that flows around circular shapes. Usually I cut a piece of fabric in the general shape that I want the piece to end up. This time I made a paper template (I've compiled a list of standard or average blanket and afghan sizes here) so I can draw in where I want the circles and can look at the big picture as I go instead of just randomly putting together shapes that have just sprung forth. (Which I love to do - just wanting to do something different this time.) I guess it could more rightly be called directed freeform.

My color choice is driven by an old Kaffe Fassett pattern featuring multi-yarn triangle shapes that I started about 5 years ago and never finished. I unraveled it, which made some interesting “Magic Balls” that got me started. I made up a bunch of different circle motifs, using patterns from “Beyond the Square, Crochet Motifs” by Edie Eckman. This is without question the book I use more than any other in my library when looking for interesting patterns in inspiring colors with easy to read written instructions and charts. 



Working about 10" ahead at a time I laid out the circles and then crocheted and knitted in stripes across. I drew lines every 10" just to have reference points.

Working towards the first 10" line

I joined my husband at a work conference on the Chesapeake. While he spent his days in meetings I wandered through the nearby towns and as always seems to happen came across some yarn stores. I bought a few yarns that seemed like they'd be perfect.

Yarns from Fibre Cafe in Cambridge, Maryland

Yarns from Yarns & Company in Easton, Maryland

I bought some really beautiful yarns, but some of the colors were really, really off. I cut some pieces of ribbon and attached the yarns onto them by color. I kept these in my handbag & pulled them out whenever a yarn store appeared in my path. It's a great system that's easy to maintain.

10/25/10:

I’ve been struggling to keep this going - not happy with the way it was heading and having trouble figuring out what to do next. On a meander through Ravelry I came across Melisseio’s Free Range Wrap which got me thinking about how I was approaching the whole thing. Between that and a couple of very encouraging Ravelry messages from Jenny Dowde (JenOz on Ravelry) and looking a bit at her work I’m back into a happy mind about where it’s heading. It’s a very different process than I usually use while “freeforming” in that I’ve got a much more specific idea of where I want to end up and how I want the piece to appear. I’m also using colors that are quite out of my usual sphere. Jenny's book, Freeform Knitting and Crochet  is one I often turn to when needing inspriation or a bit of technical direction.

11/8/10

It’s going much more quickly now. Am keeping up with my 10” per week goal - mostly because I’m already planning the next 3 or 4 projects & can’t wait to get this one finished & get onto those. 

almost finished - just need an edging

11/20/10:

The basic shape is finished. It’s feeling like it needs a border. Something sort of wavy so the uneven edges aren’t so noticeable.

12/3/10:

Finished! I decided I needed a border to finish it off. Used #54 from “Around the Corner, Crochet Borders” by Edie Eckman. I modified it slightly - I did 2 base rounds in purple, then did round 1 in yellow and round 2 in green.

This is the other Edie Eckman book that I use constantly. It's got great pictures, and it's easy to modify the instructions to fit the specific edging that you're trying to achieve. 

detail of edging

Zentangled ATC's - Assorted

A random assortment of ATC's featuring "Zentangles" (learn more about zentangling here) :

Cara (11/29/2011)

 Zentangle Pattern Organza: 6 variations

My favorite pens for tangling. They come in a set so they're easy to through in your bag and take with you. Plus the plastic sleeve keeps them organized. I also find having them all together reminds you to switch sizes when working on a piece. And this is a great price compared to my local Aaron Bros....
:


My favorite reference book for ATC's is 1000 Artist Trading Cards. It's a source of endless inspiration.

Mixed Media Collage ATCs: Profiles

A series of ATC's using cut out profiles and mixed media techniques:

Profile ATCs

I used the same profile shape in each of these Artist Trading Cards. Some of the profiles were cut out and glued on top of another image, and sometimes I used glued the negative space left from where the head had been cut out on top of other images. I wanted to have so many layers of paint, paper, and found bits of stuff that the original layer could not be seen at all.

I was once again inspired by, and used several techniques from, my favorite book on the subject: Artist Trading Card Workshop: Create, Collect, Swap. Highly recommend it!

These cards were swapped as part of the ATCs For All "Artist Choice" swap.

2011-86 Redhead 

 Maps and decorative papers with encaustic, melted wax, paint and markers.

2011-87 Linear Thinking

 Found book pages with melted wax, handmade paper and decorative papers with pen & ink and marker.

2011-88 Reality

 Tissue overlay on chalk resist (instructions here), found book pages, marker and liquid embossing.

2011-89 Blue Head

Tissue paper on printed paper.

2011-99 Deep Interest

 Pen & Ink drawing with decorative papers and fortune cookie fortune.

My "Inspired by Edie Eckman's Beyond The Square" Afghan

I used Edie Eckman's book, "Beyond the Square" crochet motif guidebook to make circles for my freeform afghan and enjoyed the square making process so much I've decided to make one of each of the motifs in the book and somehow put it together into an afghan.

Zentangled ATC's - Pattern Variations

I'm participating in a series of Zentangle Pattern variation swaps on Swap-Bot.  Each Artist Trading Card is made using one or more Zentangle Patterns beginning with a particular letter. Tangle Patterns is a great resource for an alphabetical listing of patterns with links to instructions. And here's a link to the list of "Official" Tangle Patterns.

Zentangled Pattern Series: A

 Zentangle pattern afterglo using .05Copic marker on polka dot paper.

Zentangled Pattern Series: A

Zentangle Pattern Aah using Copic .05 marker on hand painted paper.

Zentangled Pattern Series: B

The ATC on the left is the Zentangled pattern Bridgden. The card on the right has: Beadlines, Bateek, Bales, Barber Pole, Basketweave and Baton. First time I've used so many patterns in such a small space. very busy.....

Zentangled Pattern Series:C

 On the left are the Zentangled patterns Carres and Chard. I used the cover of a Tiffany catalog and a Copic .05 marker. On the right is teh Zentangled pattern Cockles 'n Mussels drawn with a white Sharpie Poster Paint marker (the best white pen I've found for Zentangling) on dark blue card stock.