“I think there has to be an interesting transformative process between your perception of reality and making the paintings. If you are just trying to render what you see you are not entering into a transformative process. And that's what makes a good painting: the process of transforming and the willingness to leave reality behind.” IfsThinkingTryingRealityProcessInterestingBehindsPaintingPerceptionWillingnessEnteringTransformingPerception Reality Author:Susan Rothenberg
“My paint is like a rocket, which describes its own space. I try to make the impossible possible. What is happening I cannot foresee, it is a surprise. Painting, like passion, is an emotion full of truth and rings a living sound, like the roar coming from the lion's breast. To paint is to destroy what preceded. I never try to make a painting, but a chunk of life. It is a scream; it is a night; it is like a child; it is a tiger behind bars.” TryingChildrenNightPassionSoundSpaceEmotionBehindsImpossiblePaintingHappeningsSurprisePaintRingsBarsBreastsLionsScreamTigersRocketsChunks Author:Karel Appel
“I started getting really curious about art. I read about the Dadaists and the Futurists and the Constructivists - those kind of movements which were reflecting the angst of the people of their times. Their work was trying to lead a movement. I began thinking about what was happening, with painting on the streets and painting on the trains as being similar but also coming from a real, pure space. It wasn't being created by academies. It was a spontaneous combustion of ideas that just happened.” PeopleThinkingTryingKindArtIdeasRealSpaceHappenedStreetsMovementPaintingPureHappeningsTrainCuriousSpontaneousReflectingAcademyAngstCombustionFuturistSpontaneous Combustion Author:Jeffrey Deitch
“I get so tired of painting. I've been trying to give it up all the time, if we could just make a living out of movies or the newspaper business or something. It's so boring, painting the same picture over and over.” IfsGivingTryingPaintingTiredBoringNewspapersSo Boring Book:Andy Warhol Source: Andy Warhol
“People are always trying to find the next groovy thing, and it hasn't gone back to painting... I'd like it to go back to painting. I'm sick of all this photography and video. There's so much of it, it's almost annoying.” PeopleTryingNextGonePaintingPhotographySickVideoAnnoyingAlways TryingGroovy Author:Cindy Sherman
“Whether it is gun control lobby, health care lobby, or abortion, pro-choice lobby, whatever it is, people are always trying to say that it is about restricting rights and they are never really prepared to talk about what the honest tradeoffs are. One of the things we need to do a better job of is actually painting those tradeoffs.” PeopleNeedsTryingCareJobsChoicesRightsHonestPaintingGunPreparedHealth CareAbortionGun ControlAlways TryingBetter JobsPro Choice Abortion Author:Ian Bremmer
“If you can see a world within a portrait I would be happy with that. I don't want to tell the story with a painting, though. I'm trying to get away from the story- from the beginning and the ending.” IfsWorldWantTryingStoriesWould BePaintingGet AwayPortraits Author:Danny Fox
“The spirit of a painting is very hard to explain and articulate. I can't say it's not intentional because that is the mark I'm trying to hit, however I don't feel I have much control over it.” FeelsTryingI CanHardSpiritPaintingMarkOver It Author:Danny Fox
“There was this interesting quote: try and live your life without fear and desire. It's this concept that's like when you look at a painting in a museum and you are held in aesthetic arrest. So the I, the ego, is stripped, is gone. The observer and thing become one. That's where fear and desire come in because you don't want to own it, possess it, desire it, and it's not moving you to fear. It's like you're in this harmonious state with the object.” WantTryingLooksStatesMovingDesireInterestingGoneObjectsPaintingLike YouEgoConceptsMuseumsAestheticLive Your LifeObserversHarmonious Author:Zack Snyder
“Someone wrote to me asking me to illustrate a missed connection that "hasn't happened yet." This guy has seen the same girl waiting at a bus stop on his morning commute for weeks, and has been trying to find a way to approach her. He thought it would be fun to put up a Missed Connections poster [of my painting] on the corner where she waits and see what happens. It is kind of an intriguing idea but there's something a bit too manipulative about it for my liking. It's a fine line between being creative and stalking!” WayTryingKindHas BeensIdeasHappensWould BeGuyGirlFunBitsWaitingLinesMorningCreativeHappenedWeekPaintingFineApproachConnectionsAskingCornersBusBe CreativeThis GuyIntriguingPostersStalkingFine LinesManipulativeBus StopsMissed Connections Author:Sophie Blackall
“Art always used to involve spirit. Painters painted spirit. They painted by commission things to go into churches, and that was painting spirit. Or they would paint people of wealth, and they would try to show how they had power, and again, this is sort of spirit.” PeopleTryingArtShowsUsedSpiritChurchWealthPaintingPaintPainter Author:Brian Froud
“I try to be aware of technology and Japanese animation and old Belgian paintings, and get all my references from bits of everywhere.” TryingBitsTechnologyPaintingAnimationBelgiansJapanese Animation Author:Guido Palau
“I don't have a lot of pressure on myself to be successful. I'm more of an artist. I just try to make myself more a part of the most beautiful painting as possible. And enjoy it.” TryingBeautifulArtistEnjoySuccessfulPaintingPressureBeing SuccessfulBeautiful Paintings Author:Dean Potter
“The art schools seem to be trying to turn people out as "professional." But I don't know what the word "professional" means any longer. "Professional" would be somebody who was trying to push painting to a point that nobody else could do as well as he could. That would be my ideal professional.” PeopleKnowsTryingWellsMeanArtSeemsWould BeSchoolTurnsPaintingIdealsArt School Author:Lawrence Weiner
“I mean, part of the justification for art is art history, the fact that you're part of this tradition. You can't really operate outside of it. So looking for what this work is really about, if I look at Velázquez, if I look at Las Meninas or The Tapestry Weavers [1657] or something and really study it and try to figure out what that painting is really about, then I find relationships between what I'm trying to do and what he was doing.” IfsTryingLooksMeanArtFactsStudyFiguresPaintingArt IsTraditionJustificationTapestryArt HistoryWeavers Author:Robert Barry
“At a young age, I really wanted to make music and make my own sort of thing. I'm sure if it wasn't music, it would have been writing, or it would have been maybe painting. I just always had the drive to try and make something with my hands and to just pull something out of myself and shape it and see it in front of me, if that makes any sense.” IfsWritingTryingHas BeensHandsAgeWantedYoungMy OwnFrontsPaintingShapesYoung Age Author:El-P
“Whether it's films or painting or music or writing a book, the greatest experience is being able to express yourself and what you've gone through, trying to figure out a way to make it into something that's artistic that people can connect with.” PeopleWayWritingTryingBookAbleFilmGoneFiguresPaintingArtisticWriting A BookExpress Yourself Author:Rob Reiner
“There are certain times when a painting accelerates beyond you, and you have to try and understand and catch up with it.” TryingCertainPaintingAccelerate Author:Nigel Cooke
“I was trying. I was crawling. I was coming into myself. I was trying to in some ways get beyond - what is the word that I'm looking for? - metaphorical language in painting, and to create something that was more indexical. And what I mean by that is that when you go to the library there's an index card that refers to a book that's actual and real in the world. So that index relates to something real.” WorldWayTryingMeanBookRealLanguagePaintingLibraryCardsRelateCrawlingMetaphoricalSomething Real Author:Kehinde Wiley
“I think that at its best, painting can be an act of juggling perceptions, a hall of mirrors. And it can be a bit confusing and scattering. But as the artist, as the man behind the velvet rope who controls the smoke and the mirrors and the way that things move in the painted space, what I want to do is to try my best to be a good witness.” ThinkingMenWayWantTryingMovingArtistBitsSpaceBehindsHe ManPaintingPerceptionMirrorsWitnessSmokeHallsConfusingRopeVelvetJuggling Author:Kehinde Wiley
“Students want to know, "Are you painting by the numbers, or are you really present as a human being to what you are doing; and is it coming from inside of you?" So I would ask teachers this question: "Do you have a wellgrounded personal experience and conviction concerning whatever it is you are trying to teach?"” KnowsWantTryingHumansAsksHuman BeingsNumbersTeachTeacherStudentsPaintingConvictionPersonal Experiences Author:Parker J. Palmer