Blog Archives

Pearls from artists* # 682

At Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris. Photo: Christine Marchal

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

Following Julie’s lead, I’d started viewing the everyday the way I looked at art – with an extra beat, with an inquisitive eye, with a willingness to linger on form and ask why. I’d gone into her studio hoping to see art differently. Bit by bit, I saw everything differently. Have you contemplated the forlorn beauty of a stripped-down storefront glowing white on a dark street? Or watched tarps draped on construction sites shiver with the wind? Like nibbling on a magic mushroom, turning an eye on reality makes you feel as if the world is performing just for you.

Bianca Booker in Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Friends Who Taught Me How to See

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Pearls from artists* # 359

Matador mask, La Paz, Bolivia

Matador mask, 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.

The Matador, with a black mask made of plaster and stucco, jumps around and teases the pair of bulls.  He wears an embroidered cloth on his chest that is draped over his shoulder to cover part of his back.  In his hand he carries a saber that was cut out of a barrel or a tin oil can, the way I saw my father and my grandfather make.  It has little bells made of beer and other bottle caps, that are flattened into rattles.  The matador also wears a colorful diamond shaped montera (cap).

“An Aymara Vision of the Altiplano Masks,” texts and photos by Sixto Choque in Masks of the Bolivian Andes, Editorial  Quipos and Banco Mercantil

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Pearls from artists* # 183

West Village

West Village

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

Part of what makes snowfall in a city magical is the way that muted sound and the sight of buildings and cars draped in whiteness go together.  If we’re not too worried about missing appointments, we feel the excitement of moving into a new place where none of the old clutter and racket of our lives has arrived. 

In Pursuit of Silence:  Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise by George Prochnik

Comments are welcome!