Take-Out Wisdom

"A truly creative person rids him or herself
of all self-imposed limitations."

(From Friday night Chinese food fortune cookie. Good point.)

Random Quotes

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
– Ursula K. Le Guin

Random Quote

The voyage of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
–Marcel Proust

Random Quotes

Uncertainty is the essential, inevitable and all-pervasive companion to your desire to make art. And tolerance for uncertainty is the pre-requisite to succeeding.
–from Art & Fear, by David Bayles and Ted Orland

Random Quotes

You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
– Mark Twain

A Good Day!

Be joyful, though you have considered all the facts. – Wendell Berry

Today I'm feeling joyful, and hopeful, and realistic. It all feels good.

Random Quotes

Don't waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it. –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear,
but around in awareness.
–James Thurber

Random Quote

"It's difficult to be creative in spite of the general cussedness of life, but it gets easier once you realize that creativity is a marvelous way to transcend life's little problems– like threats of war and terrorism, economic chaos, intimations of mortality, and the sneaking feeling that you have accomplished absolutely nothing all week."
– from How to Enjoy Writing: A Book of Aid and Comfort, by Janet and Isaac Asimov

Books for the Long Haul

One of my favorite books ever is Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland. It's one that I re-read at least once a year, and dip in to as needed. I always find something new. I'd give it to any kind of artist-- painter, writer, sculptor-- the ideas apply to all. Here are a few that struck me this time:

"The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your artwork that soars."

"If you think good work is somehow synonymous with perfect work, you are headed for big trouble. Art is human; error is human; ergo, art is error. Inevitably your work... will be flawed. Why? Because you're a human being, and only human beings, warts and all, make art."

"To make art is to sing with the human voice. To do this you must first learn that the only voice you need is the voice you already have."

No Big-Screen TV? You'll Be Okay...

... And while a hundred civilizations have prospered (sometimes for centuries) without computers or windmills or even the wheel, none have survived even a few generations without art.
– from Art & Fear, Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, by David Bayles & Ted Orland

Things That Make You Go "Ahh"

The work of art moves you like a sailboat heading into the wind; you move forward only by tacking back and forth.
– Eric Booth, The Everyday Work of Art