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Artists Quotes

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Artists Quotes

“Nothing I do is natural, realistic, organic or accidental. I'm never spontaneous, I'm completely premeditated.”

ArtistSelf AwarenessPreparedSelf RealizationPreparationSelf MotivationRealismSpontaneousWork EthicArtistsRehearsalSpontaneityWork HardArtistryNaturalismWork QuotesBehind The ScenesArtists QuotesArtistic ExpressionArtists LifeOrganicArtistic EndeavorAccidentalPremeditationDissimulationPreparationsPrepared MindPremeditatedRehearsed
Author:Nuno Roque
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“A person who is truly cool is a work of art. And remember, original works of art cost exponentially higher than imitations. Just take a look at the the coolest people in history. They will always be a part of history for being extremely original individuals, not imitations.”

PeopleLoveLifeArtDifferentInspirationFaithIndividualStrongLeadershipLeaderHistoryCourageSocietyStrengthIdentityConfidenceSelf LoveIntegrityCostUniqueBraveBeing YourselfBe YourselfThinkerRebelIndividualismOriginalityUniquenessImitationWillPersonBeingArtistsCreateBeing DifferentLeadLegendOriginalFollowCoolIdentity CrisisConfidence BuildingCoolnessThink For YourselfThink DifferentNonconformistUniqueness Of IndividualFollowerCopyOriginality QuotesBeing Different QuotesImitateWork Of ArtBe OriginalArt WorkOriginal Works
Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
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“The latent conflict between the intellectual and the economic upper class is nowhere openly engaged as yet, least of all by the artists, who, with their less developed social consciousness, react more slowly than their humanistic masters. But the problem, even if it is un-admitted and unexpressed is present all the time and in all places, and the whole intelligenstsia, both literary and artistic, is threatened by the danger of developing either into an uprooted, "unbourgeois", and envious class of bohemians or into a conservative, passive cringing class of academics. The humanists escape from from this alternative into their ivory tower, and finally succumb to both the dangers which they had intended to avoid.”

ConflictArtistsEscapismBourgeoisieIntellectualsIvory TowerUprooted
Book:The Social History of Art: Volume 2: Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque
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“Now, as I understand it, the bards were feared. They were respected, but more than that they were feared. If you were just some magician, if you'd pissed off some witch, then what's she gonna do, she's gonna put a curse on you, and what's gonna happen? Your hens are gonna lay funny, your milk's gonna go sour, maybe one of your kids is gonna get a hare-lip or something like that — no big deal. You piss off a bard, and forget about putting a curse on you, he might put a satire on you. And if he was a skilful bard, he puts a satire on you, it destroys you in the eyes of your community, it shows you up as ridiculous, lame, pathetic, worthless, in the eyes of your community, in the eyes of your family, in the eyes of your children, in the eyes of yourself, and if it's a particularly good bard, and he's written a particularly good satire, then three hundred years after you're dead, people are still gonna be laughing, at what a twat you were.”

PoliticsSingersIronySatireSongwritersArtistsMusiciansBardArtists WayModernity Is A Sickness
Author:Alan Moore
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“Art reflects the current composition of a human soul. Perhaps when the artist finally arrives at the point of making art, an artist perceives all earlier drafts as remnants of their former loathsome self. Perhaps when the songwriter stops writing songs, the singer ceases singing, the musician no longer strums his or her instrument, and the poet no longer strings lyrical verses together they have entered a kingdom of one, a realm of aesthetical and ethical certitude. Perhaps when the writer who creates a piece of literature worthy of bestowing the exalted title of art, he or she must exhibit the same gracious manners by following suit by speaking no more.”

ArtLiteratureCreativityWritersWriters On WritingArtistsCreative MindCreative ImaginationWriting VoiceCreative Impulse
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
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“Witnessing the panoply of beauty in all of nature takes us out of our shell of self-absorption and makes us realize that we are merely bit players in the game of life. Witnessing the majesty of beauty confirms that the real show lies outside us to observe and appreciate and not inside us to transfix us. True beauty charms us into seeing the grandeur of goodness that surrounds us and by doing so, the pristine splendor of nature releases us from wallowing in the poverty of our self-idealization. The bewitching spell cast by the exquisiteness of nature levitates our souls and transforms our psyche. When we see, hear, taste, smell, or touch what is beautiful, we cannot suppress the urge to replicate its baffling texture by singing, dancing, painting, or writing. Opening our eye to the loveliness of a single flower is how we stay in touch with the glorious pageantry of living.”

WritingArtArtistBeautySingingDancingFlowersArtistsBeauty QuotesBeauty Of LifeBeauty In NatureArtistic ExpressionFlower QuotesSelf AbsorptionArtistic VisionArtistic EndeavorBeauty In LifeArtistic Passion
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
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“You have to have faith in your own intuitive process. That is really all you can do. I would say this to all people who are trying to become musicians or writers or artists of any kind: learn as much as you can about your craft, of course, but ultimately trust your own instinctive impulses. Have faith in yourself, so you can stand beside whatever it is you have done and fight for it, because if you can invest it with that faith, then it has its own truth, its own honesty, its own resilient vulnerability, and hence its own value.”

FaithIntuitionArtists
Author:Nick Cave
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“Art is the conscious making of numinous phenomena. Many objects are just objects - inert, merely utilitarian. Many events are inconsequential, too banal to add anything to our experience of life. This is unfortunate, as one cannot grow except by having one’s spirit greatly stirred; and the spirit cannot be greatly stirred by spiritless things. Much of our very life is dead. For primitive man, this was not so. He made his own possessions, and shaped and decorated them with the aim of making them not merely useful, but powerful. He tried to infuse his weapons with the nature of the tiger, his cooking pots with the life of growing things; and he succeeded. Appearance, material, history, context, rarity - perhaps rarity most of all - combine to create, magically, the quality of soul. But we modern demiurges are prolific copyists; we give few things souls of their own. Locomotives, with their close resemblance to beasts, may be the great exception; but in nearly all else with which today’s poor humans are filling the world, I see a quelling of the numinous, an ashening of the fire of life. We are making an inert world; we are building a cemetery. And on the tombs, to remind us of life, we lay wreaths of poetry and bouquets of painting. You expressed this very condition, when you said that art beautifies life. No longer integral, the numinous has become optional, a luxury - one of which you, my dear friend, are fond, however unconsciously. You adorn yourself with the same instincts as the primitive who puts a frightening mask of clay and feathers on his head, and you comport yourself in an uncommonly calculated way - as do I. We thus make numinous phenomena of ourselves. No mean trick - to make oneself a rarity, in this overpopulated age.”

ArtSoulSpiritPoetryHistoryObjectsPaintingAppearanceArtistsTombsMasksRarityMaterialContextLocomotivesCemeteriesIntegralGwynnNuminous PhenomenaAsheningBeth ConstanzinDemiurgesQuelling
Book:The Etched City
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“Fueled by my inspiration, I ran across the room to steal the cup of coffee the bookshelf had taken prisoner. Lapping the black watery brew like a hyena, I tossed the empty cup aside. I then returned to the chair to continue my divine act of creation. Hot blood swished in my head as my mighty pen stole across the page.”

WritingArtInspirationWorkCreativityCreationCoffeeNovelistsArtistsFiction WritingArtists LifeRoman PaynePayneHyena
Book:Rooftop Soliloquy
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“On the great canvas of time We all create our own masterpiece. Choreographing our steps across minutes and hours Dancing over the days Painting pictures over months and Writing our stories on the years. Singing our songs that echo across eons. We are all a thread in the talent tapestry. A snapshot in the cosmic, collective collage.”

WritingArtInspirationActingCreativityCreativeCreatingSingingDancingCanvasArtistsTapestryCollageCanvas Of LifeCanvas Of Time
Author:Michele Jennae
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“She preferred the quiet solitary atmosphere, to create in her own world of paint and colour, the thrill of anticipating how her works would turn out as she eyed the blank sheets of paper or canvas before starting her next masterpiece. How satisfying it was to mess around in paint gear, without having to worry about spills, starch or frills, that was the life!”

ArtInspirationArtistImaginationCreativityPaintingSolitudeArtisticCreative ProcessArtistsCreative PeopleCreative WorkArtsArtists LifeArts And HumanitiesPaintersThrilling Life
Book:Brushstrokes of a Gadfly
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“That's what dreams are really like, you know? They're not full of melting clocks or floating roses or people made out of rocks. Most of the time, dreams look just like the normal world. It's your feelings that tell you something's off. Not your mind, not your intellect, not something as obvious as that. The only part of you that really knows what's going on is the part of you that's most a mystery. If that's not Surrealism, I don't know what is.”

ArtDreamsArtistsSurrealismIsabelleMagritteDali
Book:Crazy
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“I will always know the glory of the beautiful and rare, as they will know security from labour and prayer. As they will hear the laughter of the children they gave life, I will know the torments of the song born under knife. And to their girls, they will give, while with their sons they'll share; where I will bear a song—a son! The wife of despair.”

ArtPoemArtistsArtists LifePoetry Quotes ArtLive For ArtArtistic NecessityLiving For Art
Author:Roman Payne
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“A person of large dreams does not allow other people’s opinion to damper his or her zestfulness. Overcoming fear of making an irreversible, lifetime mistake is the first step of living an artistic existence.”

ArtistPassionAmbitionAmbitiousArtistsPublic OpinionFear Of FailurePassionate LivingArtists QuotesArtists LifeConquering FearAmbition And AttitudeArtistic LifeAmbition QuoteAmbitious PeopleAmbitious Minds
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
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“The Jesus portrayed in the United States, Europe and many other parts of the world is, quite ironically, a homosexual Jesus from the Renaissance, because that's what Da Vinci and Michaelangelo, both gays, loved to paint in the churches. People often claim that there is no proof of this but how could there be any concrete proof? First of all, being a homosexual could get you to be burned alive in a public square, and second, only the Vatican would offer jobs to artists. So imagine having to work for a boss you hate and at the same time, while being afraid he knows about your personal life and kills you. The mental pressure of these artists must have been brutal, which is why they compensated for it by hiding meanings inside their art, and just as many musicians and other artists do today when they want to tell you something that can end their career. And what a greater way to take a piss at the Vatican than that of painting Jesus as the men they loved? That's exactly what they did. Today, christians worship gay men while Da Vinci and Michaelangelo are still laughing somewhere. Because that's what great artists do, they laugh at the dogmas of society.”

JesusLaughingHomosexualArtistsChristiansVaticanGaysDogmas
Author:Dan Desmarques
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“The average artist has a naïve, unrealistic, and disconnected view of what the music industry is, how it works, what is involved in “making it”, and what actually is happening behind the scenes. Too many artists take at face value what they see on some TV documentary or read in a fan magazine. Whether you are working with others in a band, looking to connect with a manager, an agent, a label, or an investor, or you just want to work in the industry, it is more crucial than ever to know what you are working for and toward.”

SuccessBusinessArtistsMusic BusinessMusic IndustryLoren WeismanMusiciansMusic CareerArtists Guide To Success
Book:The Artist's Guide to Success in the Music Business: The “Who, What, When, Where, Why & How” of the Steps that Musicians & Bands Have to Take to Succeed in Music
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“There are several books on Walter Potter---one is called Sweet Death: A Feast With Kittens; another, The Victorian Visionary: Inventor of Kitsch. There are some on carnivals, fairgrounds, prison murals, prison art, and a hefty book with a title in gold, Portraits of Icons: From Alexamenos Graffito to Peter Blake's Sgt. Pepper. There are also books I have seen before, books I used to, until very recently when I lost my suitcase, own. One is a book on the abstract expressionist Bernice Bing; colors from her piece Burney Falls cascade down the spine---deep red, tinged with orange, outlined in black against white, brown and peach like skin. There's a book on the performance artist Senga Nengudi too, and another on the painter Amrita Sher-Gil. I take this last one off the shelf, and it falls open to a middle page, which has a picture of her painting Three Girls on it. I stand there for a moment, looking at the three girls' faces: calm, patiently waiting. They are huddled close together, as though perhaps they are sisters, but I don't think they could be; they look too different. I had a postcard of this painting taped to my wall while I was growing up. It was blank on the other side, but I kept it because I had found it tucked in the wooden frame of one of Dad's paintings. It went missing at some point, but while I had it, I looked at it often and felt that I knew---like really knew, as though I had a sense about these things---that the girls depicted were vampires, and that they were still out there in the world, looking exactly the same as when Sher-Gil painted them in 1935, and that I would one day meet them. The painting, I decided when I was a child, depicted the three girls quietly waiting for three brothers to come out of a house so that they could eat them.”

PaintingArtistsImmortalsArt BooksThree Girls
Book:Woman, Eating
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