49 posts tagged “art”

411. You don't want to know.

Sep 5, 2009
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Tourist

'It may be when we no longer know what to do,

we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go,

we have begun our real journey.'

- Wendell Berry

'Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what is next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.'

- Agnes de Mille

'I'm a modern girl

but I fold in half so easily,

when I put myself

in the picture of success.

I could learn a trade,

or try to map the ocean...'

- Rilo Kiley

410. The Point

Aug 27, 2009
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Blue

'I'm just gonna go for broke on this one and say that we do it because life is so ridiculously gorgeous, strange, heartbreaking, horrific, etc., that we are compelled to describe it to ourselves, but we can't! We cannot do it! And so we make art.'

- Miranda July

409. 'We have to start fishing...'

Aug 19, 2009
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LIT-UP

'One reason for fascination with Miyazaki may be his contradictions. The director whose films typically end with an uplifting affirmation of humanity suitable for children is the same director who told his Berkeley audience, "It would be wonderful if I could see the end of civilization during my lifetime." The man who is able to entrance children, and adults, with his animation is the same one who complains about children spending too much time with virtual reality instead of being outdoors in nature.

UC Berkeley honored Miyazaki with the Japan Prize, first given last year to writer Haruki Murakami, for contributions to the understanding of Japan. Miuazaki provided further fodder for academics in his brief acceptance remarks, which consisted of an extended metaphor about those in the entertainment field needing to insert a pipe down through the sheets of paper full of data and figures that fill our daily lives. "We have to start fishing from way down below where there is no paper," he said through an interpreter. "And the only way that we can really justify our presence and our work is to continue to make this effort to make this hole and go deeper and deeper."'

- from the LA Times article on Miyazaki, 08-09-09

404. 'As we arrange the pictures of our life, we choose the images we wish to remember.'

Jul 9, 2009
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Pattern

'Each of us is the curator of his or her life. In our galleries of meaning, certain displays may be chaotic at times, but meaning emerges by the very act of trying to arrange our treasures, even by accepting what cannot be rearranged. More important than the final result is our willingness to work at our lives in the same way a curator might work on his or her collection, keeping the storage rooms in order, rehanging this gallery or that. As curators we are also artists. We can paint new canvases and restore old ones, as well as mounting and displaying them. Setting priorities and holding to them is more important even than the materiel given us to shape or the talent we are born with. There are limits to life itself, but no expiration date on making of finding meaning within it. For the things that matter most - the parent project, the child project, the partner, friend, and God projects - the only limit lies in our willingness to take such projects seriously. When instead we neglect them, reacting helter-skelter to every little demand life imposes, we squander the most important gift we are given both as artists and as curators of meaning, the gift of time.'

- Forrest Church, Lifecraft, The Art of Meaning in the Everyday

'Tell me what you keep as your historical landmarks, what pictures are in your private album, and I will tell you who you are. But I remind you that you are, in substantial part, who you choose to be.'

- John C. Meagher as quoted in Lifecraft

397. Reach out and touch faith.

May 28, 2009
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Key

'It is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.'

- Virginia Woolf

'When I work, I work very fast, but preparing to work can take any length of time.'

- Cy Twombly

'I dream a lot. I do more painting when I'm not painting. It's in the subconscious.'

- Andrew Wyeth

'The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it.'

- Banksy

'It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.'

- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

386. I haven't forgotten about you.

Apr 24, 2009
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Time-machine-C

'In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.'

 - Vincent van Gogh

'Kiss them for me, I may find myself delayed.'

 - Siouxsie and the Banshees

356. The kind of thing you won't find in a museum.

Feb 10, 2009
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Power

'This new way of looking at creativity recognizes that all humans are endowed with the capacity for creativity, and that while that capacity (like the ability to lift or run or any other human capability) varies from person to person, it can be developed - or hindered. It also recognizes, as Alfonso Montuouri and Isabella Conti write, that creativity can be expressed in all realms, no just in the artist's loft or the rocket scientist's lab. It therefore changes the classification of what is and is not a "creative product" - as much of contemporary art has begun to do - recognizing that in fact it is "ordinary" creativity, the creativity we invest in our day-to-day lives, that is often most extraordinary since, as Elizabeth Dodson Gray writes, it can give far more meaning, and even sanctity to our lives.'
- Riane Eisler, Sacred Pleasure

355. 'Energy and persistance conquer all things.' - Ben Franklin

Feb 9, 2009
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Jeff-Ocean

'I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they're good or there because they are lucky.'

- Katherine Hepburn

346. Making love stay...

Jan 21, 2009
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Red

'Next, she thought, "When two people meet and fall in love, there's a sudden rush of magic. Magic is just naturally present then. We tend to feed on that gratuitous magic without striving to make any more. One day we wake up and find that the magic is gone. We hustle to get it back, but by then it's usually too late, we've used it up. What we have to do is work like hell at making additional magic right from the start. It's hard work, especially when it seems superfluous or redundant, but if we can remember to do it, we greatly improve our chances of making love stay." She was unsure if that idea was profound or trite. She was only sure that it mattered.'
- Tom Robbins, Still Live With Woodpecker

345. I can relate.

Jan 20, 2009
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Cactus

'Mirabelle's ambition is about one-tenth of 1 percent of what would be called normal. She has been at Neiman's almost two years without moving one inch forward. She considers herself an artist first, so her choice of jobs is immaterial. It doesn't matter to her if she is selling gloves or repainting apartments, as her real work is done in the evening with artists' crayon. Thus, she has zero ambition in these day jobs, and she tends to leave it to chance when it comes to getting and changing them. She is not aware that some people fight like alley cats for desirable situations. She presents a resume, fills out an application, waits, and finally makes a call to see if she got the job. Usually a confused secretary will answer and say that the position had been filled weeks ago. This aimlessness in presenting herself contributes to her feeling of being adrift.'
- Steve Martin, Shopgirl