Quotes about Artist

The need to be a great artist makes it hard to be an artist. The need to produce a great work of art makes it hard to produce any art at all.

To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.

"I am an artist... It's self-evident that what that word implies is looking for something all the time without ever finding it in full. It is the opposite of saying, 'I know all about it. I've already found it.' As far as I'm concerned, the word means, 'I am looking. I am hunting for it. I am deeply involved.'"

~Vincent Van Gogh~

In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist's signature.

To be an aritst is not to wait for others to define us, but to define ourselves, claim our lives…

The dignity of the artist lies in his duty of keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world. In this long vigil he often has to vary his methods of stimulation; but in this long vigil he is also himself striving against a continual tendency to sleep.

The dignity of the artist lies in his duty of keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world. In this long vigil he often has to vary his methods of stimulation; but in this long vigil he is also himself striving against a continual tendency to sleep.

Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got.

"Artists are the seeds, brave enough to live and flower before humanity. Our soil is contemplation, our water, its understanding. Whether my petals be beautiful to another, to I and The Maker, they are Unique and yet, only equally as beautiful as any other. Some call that being a Dreamer. I call it, being Belov'ed."

Where does beauty begin? Where does it end? Where it ends is where the artist begins.

Even a stone, and more easily a flower or a bird, could show you the way back to God, to the Source, to yourself.  When you look at it or hold it & let it be without imposing a word of mental label on it, a sense of awe, of wonder, arises within you.  Its essence silently communicates itself to you and reflects your own essence back to you.  This is what great artists sense and succeed in conveying in their art.  Van Gogh didn't say: "That's just an old chair."  He looked, and looked, and looked.  He sensed the Beingness of the chair.  Then he sat in front of the canvas and took up the brush.  The chair itself would have sold for the equivalent of a few dollars.  The painting of that same chair today would fetch in excess of $25 million.

To a true artist only that face is beautiful which, quite apart from its exterior, shines with the truth within the soul.

The artist is not a special kind of person; rather each person is a special kind of artist.

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up...

Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.

Basic Principles:

1. Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy.

2. There is an underlying, in-dwelling creative force infusing all of life -- including ourselves.

3. When we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the creator's creativity within us and our lives.

4. We are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves.

5. Creativity is God's gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.

6. The refusal to be creative is self-will and is counter to our true nature.

7. When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we open ourselves to God: good orderly direction.

8. As we open our creative channel to the creator, many gentle but powerful changes are to be expected.

9. It is safe to open ourselves up to greater and greater creativity.

10. Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. As we move toward our dreams, we move toward our divinity.

It is my experience both as an artist and as a teacher that when we move out on faith into the act of creation, the universe is able to advance. It is a little like opening the gate at the top of a field irrigation system. Once we remove the blocks, the flow moves in.

Art offers us a way to go beyond mere physical existence. We, the creatures with the most advanced consciousness, have been described as nature becoming aware of itself. We form art. Art forms us.

My definition [of genius] would be about being completely involved in your art form. So that's outside of sciences. Within the arts it's about taking people on a journey, being able to involve me completely-whether you're singing a song, whether it's in the theater, whether you're dancing-if you can make me forget I'm sitting in a seat, that's my definition of genius.

There is a vitality, a life-force, a energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours, clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever anytime. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than others. If I add something to my time, then that is my prize.

The question of good and evil will always be one of philosophy's most intriguing problems, up there with the problem of existence itself...If evil means to be self motivated, to be the center of one's own universe, to live on one's own terms, then every artist, every thinker, every original mind, is evil. Because we dare to look through our own eyes rather than mouth cliches lent us from the so-called Fathers. To dare to see is to steal fire from the Gods.

This is mankind's destiny, the engine with fuels us as a race.

"If you want a golden rule that will fit everybody, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

"Be the artist you were born to be."

An artists job is to see.  And to go out in the world and see it firsthand, just as it is; to report with line and words what is seen.  To be in the world, not just study about the world, that is the artists task

A third way to discover our own individual action plans is to list our values, and then determine how we can demonstrate these clearly and consistently in our live. A sculptor friend of mine took a part-time job as a carpenter to pay his bills. But he soon found out that it was essential to include sculpting in his daily life. He had to keep the value of art alive for himself and stay committed to what he really was in his own eyes -- an artist.

Mauve takes offense at my having said, "I am an artist" - which I do not take back, because that word included, of course, the meaning: always seeking without absolutely finding.  As far as I know, that word means: "I am seeking, I am striving, I am in with all my heart."

Everybody's an artist.  Everybody's God.  It's just that they're inhibited.