A Non Shitty Quote By An Artist
I don't find quotes by artists to be appealing or inspiring quite often. They usually come off as rich, arrogant, pseudo-intellectual shitfaces. But in my usual viewing of art magazines at Borders, where I always feel a scolding flame of anger surge through my body when I find an article about "The New Hot Painter Out Of (fill in name of city)", who makes mind numbing, technically sloppy work and who obviously has no gag reflex, I came upon this quote.
Hans Hoffman 1955
It was one of those quotes that makes you psychically pause and reflect;perhaps how the people who were about to stone a woman to death paused when Jesus said, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
My New Testament is a bit rusty but I'm sure you get it.
Every point counts.
Every thickness counts.
Every direction, every brush stroke counts.
And so do the most differentiated color shades.
They do not count for themselves, their velocity and power is manifested in the magic relation unto them.
Make the picture furrow like earth and brilliant like sun.
Make it pearl and diamond laden with color in every shade.
Make it hard and weighty like rock, but dewey like fruit and pulsating as blood does in a loving heart and fill it with life and laugh and tears, that it may be felt how you have felt it as the maker of a new world.
Hans Hoffman 1955
Comments
How are you today? I hope you are having a wonderful day.
I enjoyed reading this post. As much as I appreciate wisdom of people in history, I sometimes find it kind of complacent, or self-amusing. I oftentimes think to myself whenever challenges come along my way that I need serious self-talks with myself and with the Lord.
Several years ago, this 4-letter-word took Christian communities by storm: WWJD, or What would Jesus do?
Anyway, my point here is we all need some kind of spiritual journeys that go inwardly in pursuit of our life purposes, and ultimately of our identity, and the true beings we were created to be. The outcome should be the inward journeys come to the light outwardly through our "skins".
None of us was created to live alone, and my belief is that we all are assets to somebody else. If a person journeys for himself/herself only, that is nothing but a tragedy. Unfortunately, it seems to be like artists' tendencies that they go so deep into their minds in search of "ceasefires" to their personal or artistic battles that they get lost in the darkness.
Wow, this is getting way too long! Well, I think the quotation in this post is great, to sum it up. We all struggle as long as we live in this world regardless of our professions/occupations while I think being artists is one of the hardest things to do. We need inspiration to keep pressing on, and at the same time, we would like to become the inspiration that others need.
Thank you for the great insight :)
Brittany
http://www.papermoonies.blogspot.com
I think you need a more positive name for your blog, though, than "trying to make paintings that don't suck".
I do a bit of painting on my own, but haven't done so in a while since my mood has been on a low for years. You can see a couple of my old paintings here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26440876@N04/sets/72157606996833801/
I agree with what you say on how a lot of quotes on art/from artists seem to be very arrogant. I can't stand pretentiousness but I wish I could as it seems like pretentiousness can get people far.
Eva :)
So I finally have an apartment and will be hanging your painting from LA very very soon... Take care. Chris