“An artist, in my experience, is a man or woman of unusual talent and peculiar, highly individual sensibility, with an independent and probably contrary mind, driven by mysterious passions for which another word is neurosis. In getting from point A to point B, the neurotic goes via point Q. It's in that roundabout that people are either completely crippled and hopeless in life, or highly creative.” PeopleMenMindArtistPassionIndividualCreativeTalentIndependentDrivenContraryMysteriousHopelessPeculiarUnusualSensibilityNeuroticNeurosisCrippled Author:Peter Schjeldahl
“Everything that would begin to make somebody a good student would tend to make him or her a poor artist, and vice versa.” ArtistPoorStudentsVicesVice VersaGood Students Author:Peter Schjeldahl
“Artists are people who are subject to irrational convictions of the sacred. Baudelaire said that an artist is a child who has acquired adult capacities and discipline. Art education should help build those capacities and that discipline without messing over the child.” PeopleShouldChildrenArtSaidHelpingArtistSubjectsDisciplineAdultsCapacitySacredConvictionInnocenceIrrationalArt EducationBaudelaire Author:Peter Schjeldahl
“Artists are expected to talk about their work but writers aren't expected to talk about their writing.” WritingArtistExpected Author:Peter Schjeldahl
“The problem of making artists talk about their work is that when they're making their work the left-brain is shut off. So if you talk to an artist about it, you're talking to someone who wasn't there. It's hopeless.” IfsProblemArtistLeftBrainTalkingHopelessTalking To SomeoneLeft Brain Author:Peter Schjeldahl
“All artists and creative people are basically unhappy people. If you were happy, that would mean you were content with the world as it was and why would you ever want to change it?” PeopleIfsWorldWantMeanArtistCreativeUnhappyCreative PeopleHappy PeopleUnhappy People Author:Peter Schjeldahl
“A lot of writers and artists are like chefs who eat their own cooking in the kitchen and then deliver an empty plate with assurances that it's great.” ArtistEmptyCookingKitchenPlatesChefAssurance Author:Peter Schjeldahl
“The experience of beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say. The artist's relation to the object of beauty, how the art makes that happen, is a whole other subject. Beauty is an event. Beauty is something that happens. There is no such thing as a beautiful object or a beautiful woman.” ArtWholeHappensEyeBeautifulArtistSubjectsEventsObjectsRelationBeautiful WomenBeholderEye Of The BeholderBeauty Is In The Eye Of The BeholderBeautiful Objects Author:Peter Schjeldahl
“Artists are sometimes in a position to tell the truth, but they're positioned as a Cassandra. They're gifted with impeccable prophecy and the assurance of never being listened to.” SometimesArtistPositionTelling The TruthGiftedProphecyAssuranceImpeccable Author:Peter Schjeldahl
“The artist is a strange being. I think it's safe to say that a real artist is conscious of having a personal singularity that is partly a blessing and partly a curse. An artist enjoys and suffers from isolation. As solitude, isolation can nurture. It can also destroy.” ThinkingRealArtistSufferingEnjoyCreativityStrangeBlessingSolitudeSafeConsciousCurseIsolationNurtureBeing AloneSingularityReal Artists Author:Peter Schjeldahl
