“Epiphany,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 38″ x 58″

*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.

Regardless of personal convictions or professional concerns, an artist’s power comes down to two things:  her sensitivity to the radical mystery of existence, and the artistry and craft with which she can channel that mystery into an object or performance.  Neither existential awe nor a given metaphysical outlook need to serve as an explicit motivation.  Simply, the emergence of artistic vision – and the need to express the vision without distorting or conceptualizing it – is contingent upon the underlying wonderment at being itself, a wonderment without which there would be no art.  

J.F. Martel in Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice:  A Treatise, Critique, and Call to Action 

Comments are welcome!