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Emily Carr

Emily Carr Quotes

Artist

Emily Carr was a renowned Canadian artist known for her unique West Coast Indigenous art style and landscape paintings. Her works profoundly depicted the natural landscapes and Indigenous cultures of British Columbia, Canada, and had a profound impact on the Canadian art world.

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All Earth Feels Want Art Paint Knows Art Is Ifs Painting Soul

Famous Emily Carr Quotes

“Oh, the glory of growth, silent, mighty, persistent, inevitable! To awaken, to open up like a flower to the light of a fuller consciousness!”

Light Growth Consciousness Flower Glory Silent Inevitable Persistent

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“I was not ready for abstraction. I clung to earth and her dear shapes, her density, her herbage, her juice. I wanted her volume, and I wanted to hear her throb.”

Wanted Earth Ready Shapes Dear Volume Abstraction Juice Not Ready Density

Book:Growing Pains: The Autobiography of Emily Carr

Source: Growing Pains: The Autobiography of Emily Carr

“Oh I do want that thing, that oneness of movement that will catch the thing up into one movement and sing - harmony of life.”

Want Movement Harmony Oneness

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“Rentals sank, living rose. I could not afford help. I must be owner, agent, landlady and janitor. I loathed landladying... I tried in every way to augment my income. Small fruit, hens, rabbits, dogs - pottery... I never painted now - had neither time nor wanting. For about fifteen years I did not paint.”

Way Years Helping Dog Rose Fruit Paint Income Agents Owners Fifteen Rabbits Fifteen Years Hens Pottery Janitor

Author:Emily Carr

“How badly I want that nameless thing! First there must be an idea, a feeling... Maybe it was an abstract idea that you've got to find a symbol for, or maybe it was a concrete form that you have to simplify or distort to meet your ends, but that starting point must pervade the whole.”

Want Firsts Ideas Ends Whole Feelings Form Desire Starting Symbols Abstract Concrete Simplify Starting Point Nameless

Author:Emily Carr

“My mountain is dead. As soon as she has dried, I'll bury her under a decent layer of white paint. But I haven't done with the old lady; far from it!”

Done White Havens Mountain Determination Paint Decent Layers Old Lady

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“Last night I dreamed that I came face to face with a picture I had done and forgotten, a forest done in simple movement, just forms of trees moving in space. That is the third time I have seen pictures in my dreams, a glint of what I am striving to attain.”

Done Dream Lasts Faces Moving Form Night Simple Space Tree Movement Thirds Strive Forgotten Forests Last Night Face To Face Moving In Third Time

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“I thought my mountain was coming this morning. It was near to speaking when suddenly it shifted, sulked, and returned to smallness. It has eluded me again and sits there, puny and dull. Why?”

Morning Failure Mountain Dull Smallness

Author:Emily Carr

“The sun enriched the old poles grandly... The mothers expressed all womanhood - the big wooden hands holding the child were so full of tenderness they had to be distorted enormously in order to contain it all. Womanhood was strong in Kitwancool.”

Children Hands Bigs Mother Order Strong Sun Gender Tenderness Womanhood Hand Holding

Book:The Emily Carr Omnibus

Source: The Emily Carr Omnibus

“Don't take what someone else has made sure of and pretend it's you yourself that have made sure of it till it's yours absolutely by conviction. It's stealing to take it and hypocrisy and you'll fall into a hole.”

Made Fall Conviction Stealing Holes Hypocrisy

Book:Klee Wyck

Source: Klee Wyck

“I sat staring, staring, staring - half lost, learning a new language or rather the same language in a different dialect.”

Different Lost Language Half Staring Sat Dialect

Book:Growing Pains: The Autobiography of Emily Carr

Source: Growing Pains: The Autobiography of Emily Carr

“Bless... the two painting masters who first pointed out to me that there was coming and going among trees, that there was sunlight in shadows.”

Firsts Two Tree Painting Masters Shadow Bless Sunlight

Book:Growing Pains: The Autobiography of Emily Carr

Source: Growing Pains: The Autobiography of Emily Carr

“The memory of Cumshewa is of a great lonesomeness smothered in a blur of rain.”

Memories Rain Blur Lonesomeness

Book:Klee Wyck

Source: Klee Wyck

“Over and over one must ask oneself the queston, 'What do I want to express? What is the thought behind the saying? What is my ideal, what my objective? What? Why? Why? What?”

Want Asks Behinds Ideals Oneself Objectives

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“I have been sent more ridiculous press notices. People are frequently comparing my work with Van Gogh... I do hope I do not get bloated and self-satisfied. When proud feelings come I step up over them to the realm of work, to the thing I want, the liveness of the thing itself.”

People Want Has Beens Self Feelings Steps Proud Presses Ridiculous Satisfied Recognition Compare Realms Vans Step Up Self Recognition

Author:Emily Carr

“There is a need to go deeper, to let myself go completely, to enter into the surroundings in the real fellowship of oneness, to lift above the outer shell, out into the depth and wideness where God is the recognized centre and everything is in time with everything, and the key-note is God.”

Needs Real Religion Keys Notes Depth Deeper Oneness Lifts Shells Centre Surroundings Fellowship

Author:Emily Carr

“Indian Art broadened my seeing, loosened the formal tightness I had learned in England's schools. Its bigness and stark reality baffled my white man's understanding... I had been schooled to see outsides only, not struggle to pierce.”

Men Art Reality School Understanding White Struggle Seeing England Indian Formal White Man Starks Pierce Schooled Baffled Stark Reality

Book:The Emily Carr Omnibus

Source: The Emily Carr Omnibus

“If the air is jam-full of sounds which we tune in with, why should it not also be full of feels and smells and things seen through the spirit, drawing particles from us to them and them to us like magnets?”

Ifs Feels Should Spirit Sound Air Smell Drawing Tunes Particles Jam Magnet

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“So still were the big woods where I sat, sound might not yet have been born.”

Has Beens Stills Bigs Might Sound Born Silence Woods Staring Sat Dialect

Book:Growing Pains: The Autobiography of Emily Carr

Source: Growing Pains: The Autobiography of Emily Carr

“What do I want to express? The subject means little. The arrangement, the design, colour, shape, depth, light, space, mood, movement, balance, not one or all of these fills the bill. There is something additional, a breath that draws your breath into its breathing, a heartbeat that pounds on yours, a recognition of the oneness of all things.”

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“When you really think about your hand you begin to realize its connection, to sense the hum of your own being passing through it. When we look at a piece of the universe we should feel the same.”

Thinking Feels Should Looks Hands Universe Realizing Pieces Connections Passing Passings Passing Through

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“Oh, I wonder if I will ever feel the burst of birth-joy, that knowing that the indescribable, joyous thing that has wooed and wond me has passed through my life and produced one atom of the great reality.”

Ifs Feels Reality Joy Wonder Knowing Birth Atoms Joyous Indescribable

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“It's all the unwordable things one wants to write about, just as it's all the unformable things one wants to paint - essence.”

Want Writing Essence Paint

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“Trying to find equivalents for things in words helps me find equivalents in painting.”

Trying Helping Painting Help Me

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“Writing is a splendid sorter of... feelings, better even than paint.”

Writing Feelings Paint Feel Better Splendid

Author:Emily Carr

“The outstanding event was the doing which I am still at. Don't pickle me awayas done.”

Stills Done Events Outstanding Pickles

Author:Emily Carr

“There is a side of friendship that develops better and stronger by correspondence than contact.... The absence of the flesh in writing perhaps brings souls nearer.”

Writing Soul Sides Stronger Absence Flesh Contact Correspondence

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“I am always watching for fear of getting feeble and passé in my work. I don't want to trickle out. I want to pour till the pail is empty, the last bit going out in a gush, not in drops.”

Want Lasts Bits Empty Abundance Going Out

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“The foolish square calves pretend to be frightened of our train. Bluffers! Haven't they seen it every day since they were born? It's just an excuse to shake the joy out of their heels.”

Joy Born Havens Train Excuse Foolish Shakes Frightened Squares Heels Calves

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“The biggest part of painting perhaps is faith, and waiting receptively, content to go any way, not planning or forcing. The fear, though, is laziness. It is so easy to drift and finally be tossed up on the beach, derelict.”

Way Easy Waiting Painting Planning Beach Laziness Derelict

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“real art is religion, a search for the beauty of God deep in all things.”

Art Real Art Is All Things

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“There is no right and wrong way to paint except honestly or dishonestly. Honestly is trying for the bigger thing. Dishonestly is bluffing and getting through a smattering of surface representation with no meaning.”

Way Trying Painting Bigger Paint Surface Honestly Representation Wrong Way

Book:Opposite Contraries: The Unknown Journals of Emily Carr and Other Writings

Source: Opposite Contraries: The Unknown Journals of Emily Carr and Other Writings

“Sometimes I could quit paint and take to charring. It must be fine to clean perfectly, to shine and polish and know that it could not be done better. In painting that never occurs.”

Knows Sometimes Done Painting Fine Perfection Shining Clean Paint Quitting Polish

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“Art being so much greater than ourselves, it will not give up once it has taken hold.”

Giving Art Taken Greater Giving Up Art Is Not Giving Up

Book:The Emily Carr Omnibus

Source: The Emily Carr Omnibus

“Got a new pup. He is half griffon. The other half is mistake.”

Mistake Half Other Half Pups

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“I wonder why we are always sort of ashamed of our best parts and try to hide them. We don't mind ridicule of our 'sillinesses' but of our 'sobers'.”

Trying Mind Wonder Ashamed Ridicule Embarrassment Silliness

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“enter into the life of the trees. Know your relationship and understand their language, unspoken, unwritten talk. Answer back to them with their own dumb magnificence, soul words, earth words, the God in you responding to the God in them.”

Knows Soul God Earth Language Answers Tree Dumb Our Relationship Responding Unspoken Magnificence Unwritten

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“Go out there into the glory of the woods. See God in every particle of them expressing glory and strength and power, tenderness and protection. Know that they are God expressing God made manifest.”

Knows Made God Nature Glory Woods Protection Manifest Tenderness Particles

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“The house begins to be a home. The unfamiliar places are beginning to fold the familiar objects into their keeping and to cozy them down. Objects that swore at each other when the movers heaved them into the new rooms have subsided into corners and sit to lick their feet and wash their faces like cats accepting a new home.”

Home Faces House Rooms Accepting Feet Objects Cat Corners Familiar Folds Unfamiliar Cozy New Home Inanimate Objects

Author:Emily Carr

“Up came the sun, and drank the dew.”

Morning Sun Drank Dew

Book:The House of All Sorts

Source: The House of All Sorts

“Let me not fuss and fret at my incompetence but be still and know that Thou art God.”

Knows Art Stills Peace Let Me Incompetence

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“I made myself into an envelope into which I could thrust my work deep, lick the flap, seal it from everybody.”

Made Privacy Thrust Seals Envelopes

Book:The Emily Carr collection

Source: The Emily Carr collection

“The earth is soaked and soggy with rain. Everything is drinking its fill and the surplus gluts the drains. The sky is full of it and lies low over the earth, heavy and dense. Even the sea is wetter than usual!”

Earth Lying Sea Sky Lows Rain Drinking Heavy Usual Drains Dense Surplus

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“I can rise above the humility of my failure with an intense desire to search deeper and a blind faith that some day my sight may pierce through the veils that hide. I know God's face is there if I keep my gaze steady enough.”

Ifs Knows May I Can Enough Faces Desire Humility Sight Blind Deeper Intense Steady Veils Rise Above Knowing God Pierce Blind Faith

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“The liveness in me just loves to feel the liveness in growing things, in grass and rain and leaves and flowers and sun and feathers and furs and earth and sand and moss.”

Feels Earth Sun Growing Flower Rain Grass Sand Feathers Vitality Fur Mother Nature Moss Growing Things Leaves And Flowers

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“If you're going to lick the icing off somebody else's cake you won't be nourished and it won't do you any good,--or you might find the cake had caraway seeds and you hate them.”

Ifs Might Hate Seeds Cake Icing

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“Indians do not hinder the progress of their dead by embalming or tight coffining. When the spirit has gone they give the body back to the earth. the earth welcomes the body-coaxes new life and beauty from it, hurries over what men shudder at. Lovely tender herbage bursts from the graves, swiftly, exulting over corruption.”

Men Giving Body Earth Spirit Gone Progress Corruption Lovely Graves Indian New Life Hinder Life And Beauty Embalming

Book:The Emily Carr Omnibus

Source: The Emily Carr Omnibus

“You come into the world alone and you go out of the world alone yet it seems to me you are more alone while living than even going and coming.”

World Seems Political Loneliness Lonesome

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“I think that one's art is a growth inside one. I do not think one can explain growth. It is silent and subtle. One does not keep digging up a plant to see how it grows.”

Thinking Doe Art Grows Growth Quiet Art Is Plant Silent Self Discovery Subtle Digging Digging Ditches

Author:Emily Carr

“Perfectly ordered disorder designed with a helter-skelter magnificence.”

Disorder Magnificence

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

About the Author

Born: December 13, 1871
Died: March 2, 1945
Known for: Artist
Quotes: 71

Related Topics

Earth Feels Want Art Paint Knows Art Is Ifs Painting Soul

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily CarrRelated source material

The Emily Carr OmnibusRelated source material

Growing Pains: The Autobiography of Emily CarrRelated source material

Klee WyckRelated source material

Opposite Contraries: The Unknown Journals of Emily Carr and Other WritingsRelated source material

Hundreds and thousandsRelated source material

Sunlight in the shadows: the landscape of Emily CarrRelated source material

The Emily Carr collectionRelated source material

The House of All SortsRelated source material

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