Category Archives: Quotes
Pearls from artists* # 709
Signing “Magisterial,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 58” x 38”
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on
The artist’s life cannot be otherwise than full of conflicts, for two forces are at war within him—on the one hand the common human longing for happiness, satisfaction and security in life, and on the other a ruthless passion for creation which may go so far as to override every personal desire… There are hardly any exceptions to the rule that a person must pay dearly for the divine gift of creative fire.
Carl Jung quoted in Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art by Steven Nachmanovitch
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Pearls from artists* # 708
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on
Free play must be tempered with judgment, and judgment tempered with freedom to play. We perform innumerable balancing acts, dances between opposite poles, each of which is necessary for life and art to exist. We have to live right on the balance point of an equi-valence between free flow of impulse and constant testing and questing for quality. With too little judgment, we get trash. We too much judgment, we get blockage. In order to play freely, we must have a command of technique. Back and forth flows the dialogue of imagination and discipline, passion and precision. We harmonize groundedness in daily practice with spiritedness in daily stepping out into the unknown.
Stephen Nachmanovitch in Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art
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Pearls from artists* # 707
The Studio
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on
Intuition often serves as a diving rod that guides us to our secret language. ‘Listening to your gut’ is actually a rapid process of previous experience and cumulative knowledge that results in a seemingly sudden ‘educated guess.’ You may not be able to consciously access all the memories and information that led to your ‘hunch,’ but they are there, nevertheless. Many of us have a keenly developed sense of intuition, but do not trust it. But often, when we are deliberating a problem, we lay our head on our pillow, all the rational ‘pros and cons’ drop away, and we know the answer to our question. We simply need to cultivate and have faith in that knowing.
Kate Kretz in Art From Your Core: A Holistic Guide to Visual Voice
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Pearls from artists* # 704
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
Why do we do art? There may be multiple and serious motivations, such as opening people’s eyes to injustice or saving the world; but if the activity to save the world doesn’t give us joy, what’s the point of having a world, and how will we have the wholeness and energy to carry on? This whole adventure of creativity is about joy and love. We live for the pure joy of being, and out of that joy unfold the ten thousand art forms and all the branches of learning and compassionate activity.
Stephen Nachmanovitch in Free Play: Improvisation in Art and Life
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Pearls from artists* # 703
Barbara’s Studio
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
Artmaking embodies freedom, in a way that few vocations do. But, while we have no supervisors in our studios, we are not quite as free as we imagine. We all carry sone cumulative art baggage. All the people and ideas that have influenced us over the years have shaped the art we make today. Sone guidance served us well, seamlessly dovetailing into our own divine direction. Yet others may hold us back, constraining the distinct development of our creative articulation.
The work we do is affected by logistical limitations, such as time, space, and money. But we also possess biases, assumptions, rules, values, methodologies, goal structures, and conceptual frameworks we have assimilated into our practice along the way. We may delude ourselves into thinking we have actively chosen these limiting parameters, instead of recognizing that we may have absorbed them purely by default. Authority figures, over the course of our entire lives, have provided positive or negative reinforcement, not only through overt criticism or praise, but also through omission. These pressures are frequently tacit, wordlessly shaping the direction of our practice when a piece was changed or ignored by the powers that be.
Kate Kretz in Art From Your Core: A Holistic Guide to Visual Voice
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Pearls from artists* # 702
“Oblate,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 26” x 20”
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
The most noteworthy hurdle we face as artists is the brutal ‘Why should I care?’ Why, out of all the millions of art objects and experiences vying for our attention, should someone spend time on ours? We cannot share our visions with people if we cannot get them to stop and look at our work. Louise Bourgeois said, ‘Art is a seduction,’ but there are many different types of seduction. There should be something about our work that speaks to those with similar sensibilities, that sends them a secret signal.
Kate Kretz in Art From Your Core: A Holistic Guide to Visual Voice
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Pearls from artists* # 700
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
Let’s talk about courage now.
If you already have the courage to bring forth the jewels that are hidden within you, terrific. You’re probably already doing really interesting things with your life, and don’t need this book. Rock on.
But if you don’t have the courage, let’s try to get you some. To use creative living is a path for the brave. We all know this. And we all know when courage dies, creativity dies with it. We all know that fear is a desolate boneyard where our dreams go to desiccate in the hot sun. This is common knowledge; sometimes we just don’t know what to do about it.
Elizabeth Gilbert in Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
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Pearls from artists* # 699
Panorama of Barbara’s Studio
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the advanced there are few. You are an artist and it’s too late to back out. You have no choice, now or in a year or two, but to take aim upon your life and discard all the debris that holds you back from doing what you know you have to do.
Letter from Ted Orland to Sally Mann in Art Work: On the Creative Life by Sally Mann
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Pearls from artists* # 698
With “Overlord,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 70” x 50”
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
When you learn to trust your own voice, it is like stepping up to claim your rightful place in the universe. Remaining true to yourself as an artist is one of the most difficult things to do: temptations to compromise are everywhere. It is through standing in the fire that you build and maintain your core essence. You cease to be afraid of your largeness, your power. You begin to wield your audacity in service of a vision that is larger than yourself. In doing so, you empower others to do the same. Every day, that call to rise to your highest self comes for you, and you get to choose. You can step over the threshold to locate the voice that you know, deep in your gut, has been becoming you… for years, or even decades. ‘Here I am,’ it says. ‘You sought me out. You are finally ready. Let’s do this!’
– Kate Kretz in Art From Your Core: A Holistic Guide to Visual Voice
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barbararachkoscoloreddust.com 
Pearls from artists* # 706
Jun 10
Posted by barbararachkoscoloreddust
Carnival mask, MUSEF La Paz, Bolivia
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
Several observers have commented that Saint Michael seems “pallid and emasculated” compared to the fearsome devils that oppose him. During the dancing that filled the parade ground immediately before and after the play’s performance, Michael was visually outshone and vastly outnumbered. While a few archangels danced up and down in pink and white, hundreds of devils cavorted in a wild array of colors splashed liberally across their high boots, skintight trousers, beaded capes and tunics, long wigs, and monstrous masks. Their masks are among the most complex headpieces in the festive world: “bulging, billiard-ball eyes studded with bright artificial stones and huge grinning silver teeth, hideously pointed, leer grotesquely out of an exuberant triangle of horns and ears and tusks, painted in a wild cacophony of colors, and crowned by a three-headed viper or other misshapen reptile.” Some masks are crowned with whole stuffed condors. No two masks are alike. Dancing alongside the devils, a number of China Supays provocatively swing their hips and twirled their skirts. The odds were stacked against the virtuous archangel. The audience’s eyes were on the devil’s masks and the China Supay’s thighs. Winning the aesthetic war in performance is a common folk means of challenging an officially scripted defeat.
Max Harris in Carnival and Other Christian Festivals: Folk Theology and Folk Performance
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Posted in 2026, Bolivia, Inspiration, Pearls from Artists, Quotes
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