Those who cannot begin do not finish.
I am interested in art as a means of living a life; not as a means of making a living.
Know what the old masters did. Know how they composed their pictures, but do not fall into the conventions they established. These conventions were right for them, and they are wonderful. They made their language. You make yours. All the past can help you.
The work of the art student is no light matter. Few have the courage and stamina to think it through. You have to make up your mind to be alone in many ways. We like sympathy and we like to be in company. It is easier than going it alone. But alone one gets acquainted with himself, grows up and on, not stopping with the crowd. It costs to do this. If you succeed somewhat you may have to pay for it as well as enjoy it all your life.
Do whatever you do intensely.
To have ideas one must have imagination. To express ideas one must have science.
Look for echoes. Sometimes the same shape or direction will echo through the picture.
Work always as if you were a master, expect from yourself a masterpiece.
Drawing is not following a line on the model, it is drawing your sense of the thing.
Get the few main lines and see what lines they call out.
To be free, to be happy and to be fruitful, can only be attained through sacrifice of many common but overestimated things.
In certain books—some way in the first few paragraphs you know that you have met a brother.
Everything depends on the attitude of the artist toward his subject. It is essential.
All the past up to a moment ago is your legacy. You have a right to it.
The pursuit of happiness is a great activity. One must be open and alive. It is the greatest feat man has to accomplish, and spirits must flow. There must be courage. There are no easy ruts to get into which lead to happiness. A man must become interesting to himself and must become actually expressive before he can be happy.
The object, which is back of every true work of art, is the attainment of a state of being, a state of high functioning, a more than ordinary moment of existence. In such moments activity is inevitable, and whether this activity is with brush, pen, chisel, or tongue, its result is but a by-product of the state, a trace, the footprint of the state.
Art is, after all, only a trace – like a footprint which shows that one has walked bravely and in great happiness.
The only sensible way to regard the art life is that it is a privilege you are willing to pay for... You may cite honors and attentions and even money paid, but I would have you note that these were paid a long time after the creator had gone through his struggles.
Art when really understood is the province of every human being. It is simply a question of doing things, anything, well. It is not an outside, extra thing.
Personal experimentation is revealing, and once you get into it, immensely engaging.
Color is only beautiful when it means something.
Today must not be a souvenir of yesterday, and so the struggle is everlasting. Who am I today? What do I see today? How shall I use what I know, and how shall I avoid being victim of what I know? Life is not repetition.
Life is finding yourself. It is a spirit development.
It seems to me that before a man tries to express anything to the world he must recognize in himself an individual, a new one, very distinct from others.
Don't worry about your originality. You couldn't get rid of it even if you wanted to. It will stick with you and show up for better or worse in spite of all you or anyone else can do.
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