“Pure, existential space was regularly winking at me, each time in a more impressive manner, and this sensation of total freedom attracted me so powerfully that I painted some monochrome surfaces just to 'see,' to 'see' with my own eyes what existential sensibility granted me: absolute freedom!” EyeMy OwnSpacePureAbsolutesSurfaceGrantedSensationsExistentialSensibilityImpressiveAbsolute FreedomWinkingMonochrome Author:Yves Klein
“Involved in my own entrails and a crust Turning a pitted surface towards a space, I am a world that watches through a sky And is persuaded by mirrors To regard its being as an external shell, One of a universe of stars and faces.” WorldFacesUniverseStarsMy OwnSpaceWatchesSkyInvolvedMirrorsRegardSurfaceShells Book:New Collected Poems of Stephen Spender Source: New Collected Poems of Stephen Spender
“I have, for my own projected works and ideas, only the silliest and dewiest of hopes; no matter what, I am romantic enough or sentimental enough to wish to contribute something to life's fabric, to the world's beauty.... [S]imply to live does not justify existence, for life is a mere gesture on the surface of the earth, and death a return to that from which we had never been wholly separated; but oh to leave a trace, no matter how faint, of that brief gesture! For someone, some day, may find it beautiful!” WorldMayDoeIdeasMatterEnoughEarthBeautifulLife IsWishMy OwnExistenceReturnNo Matter WhatMereSurfaceJustifyGesturesFabricSentimental Author:Frank O'Hara
“I guess I'm interested in the behind-the-surface feelings of the human condition, in my own way. I was always struck by the gap - at least in the books I was reading - between what people tell stories about and what I actually feel. I started thinking about a gap between fantasy and reality.” PeopleThinkingWayFeelsHumansBookStoriesFeelingsRealityReadingMy OwnBehindsFantasyConditionsSurfaceGapsHuman ConditionFantasy And Reality Author:Signe Baumane
“My reason [for making my own paint] is to force a real-time experience of the work. Most work today is experienced by reproduction, and more specifically by computer screen, like jpegs, but an RGB simulation of fluorescent will never fully accurately depict some colors. For example, our eyes are a lot more sophisticated than you might assume. You can feel a lot more going on on the surface of a canvas than you can on the surface of a screen.” FeelsRealReasonMightEyeTodayForceMy OwnExampleColorComputerAssumingPaintSurfaceScreensSophisticatedCanvasReproductionSimulationComputer Screen Author:Ryan McGinness
“I can write with authority only about what I know well, which means that I end up using surface details of my own life in my fiction.” KnowsWritingWellsMeanI CanEndsMy OwnFictionAuthorityDetailsSurfaceMy Own Life Author:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“I think we're skating on surfaces. I know it in my own life - and I think that is where this frustration comes in. It's not the place we want to be, but it's the place our society requires that we be. There is no fulfillment there. So we become numbed, we become drugged, we become less than we are. And I think that we know that.” ThinkingKnowsWantMy OwnSurfaceFulfillmentFrustrationOur SocietyMy Own LifeSkating Author:Terry Tempest Williams