Quotes: Epictetus

"The trials you face will introduce you to your strengths."  

–– Epictetus (50-135 A.D.), Greek stoic philosopher 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 50.

Quotes: Austin Kleon

"Creative people need time to sit around and do nothing." 

–– Austin Kleon (b. 1983), American author and illustrator

Source: Austin Kleon. Steal Like an Artist. New York: Workman Publishing, 2012, p. 67.

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 49.

Quotes: Edwin Land

"An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail." 

–– Edwin Land (1909-1991), Russian-American scientist and inventor 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 48.

Quotes: Malcolm Gladwell

"The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and re-imagines the world."

–– Malcolm Gladwell (b. 1963), British-born Canadian author and journalist 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 47.

Quotes: Pina Bausch

"Repetition is not repetition. The same action makes you feel something completely different by the end." 

–– Pina Bausch (1940-2009), German dancer and choreographer 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 41. 

Quotes: Steven Heighton

"Interest is never enough. If it doesn't haunt you, you'll never write it well. What haunts and obsesses you may, with luck and labour, interest your readers. What merely interests you is sure to bore them." 

–– Steven Heighton (1961-2022), Canadian novelist, poet, short-story writer 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 41.

Quotes: Julietta Singh

"[I]nterruptions are occasions for reorientation, for producing necessary and new ways of living. We are beginning to lean into the breaks because we must, because in this requisite shift we can sense profound potential to become a more promising form of our collective selves." 

–– Julietta Singh, Canadian scholar, academic and writer 

Source: Julietta Singh. The Breaks: An Essay. Toronto, Ontario: Coach House Books, 2021, p. 39.

Quotes: Auguste Rodin

"Patience is also a form of action."  

–– Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), French sculptor 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 40.

Quotes: Hans Hofmann

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak." 

–– Hans Hofman (1880-1966), German-born American artist and teacher 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 40. 

Quotes: René Magritte

"When we meet the unknown, we can believe we are out of place. But, in fact, I believe that we are reoriented." 

–– René Magritte (1898-1967), Belgian surrealist painter 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 40.

Quotes: C. S. Lewis

"No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear." 

–– C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Irish-born British writer and lay theologian 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 39.

Quotes: Edgar Degas

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

–– Edgar Degas (1834-1917), French artist 

via: Sketchbook 22, 2022, p. 39.

Quotes: Etel Adnan

"I write what I see, I paint what I am." 

–– Etel Adnan (1925-2021), Lebanese-American poet, essayist, visual artist 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 37.

Quotes: Katrine Engberg

"The butterfly that draws the least attention to itself is the most dangerous."

–– Katrine Engberg (b. 1975), Danish writer, actor, dancer, and choreographer 

Source: Katrine Engberg. The Butterfly House. Translation Tara Chace. New York: Scout Press, 2021, p. 86. re: the Glasswing Butterfly

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 36.

Quotes: Jerry Saltz

"Artists: Never let anything go to waste. If it isn't working out now, it may work out later or be refitted, appear in another form, turned around, pulled apart. There are no wasted days." 

–– Jerry Saltz (b. 1951), American author, art critic, journalist

Source: Jerry Saltz, Instagram, May 16, 2022. 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 32.

Quotes: Georgia O'Keeffe

"You get whatever accomplishment you are willing to declare."   

–– Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986), American artist 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 28.

Quotes: Epictetus

"If your choices are beautiful, so too will you be."

 –– Epictetus (50-135 A.D.), Greek stoic philosopher 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 26.

Quotes: Aaron Siskind

"In any art, you don't know in advance what you want to say ... it's revealed to you as you say it. That's the difference between art and illustration." 

–– Aaron Siskind (1903-1991), American photographer 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 25. 

Quotes: Zeno

"Well-being is realised by small steps, but is truly no small thing." 

–– Zeno (334- 262 BC), Hellenistic Stoic philosopher from Citium, Cyprus

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 20.

Quotes: Neil Gaiman

"Make new mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before."  

–– Neil Gaiman (b. 1960), British author and screenwriter 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 18.

Quotes: Bruce Kuwabara

"Like art, great architecture is a transformation of tradition and can change the way we see, experience, and relate to each other and the world. True transformation invites new ways of thinking, creative processes, new forms and expression." 

–– Bruce Kuwabara, Canadian architect 

Source: Akimbo, February 17, 2022, Agnes Etherington Art Gallery announcement, Kingston, Ontario.

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 17.

Quotes: Bruce Mau

"Love your experiments as you would an ugly child." 

––  Bruce Mau (b. 1959), Canadian designer and educator 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 14.

Quotes: John Cage

"If a thing can be said, it can be said simply."

–– John Cage (1912-1992), American composer, writer and artist 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 13.

Quotes: E. Annie Proulx

"Walking induces a trance like state that allows the mind freedom and ease and encourages exploration of odd possibilities and improbable connections." 

–– E. Annie Proulx (b. 1935), American writer 

via: Sketchbook 31, 2021, p. 150.

Question

What will you do today that will make you proud in a year?

Quotes: George Bernard Shaw

 "A man ... progresses in all things by making a fool of himself." 

–– George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Irish playwright, critic, and social activist 

via: Sketchbook 31, 2021, p. 120.

Quotes: Caitlin Moran

"Crying is like your heart pooing out bad feelings." 

–– Caitlin Moran (b. 1975), English journalist, author, and broadcaster 

Source: Caitlin Moran. More Than a Woman. 2020, chapter 16.

via: Sketchbook 31, 2021, p. 119.

Quotes: Ovid

"Be patient and tough; some day all this pain will be useful to you." 

–– Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō, known in English as Ovid (43 BC -17 AD), Roman poet 

Source: Caitlin Moran. More Than a Woman. 2020

via: Sketchbook 31, 2021, p. 119.

Quotes: unknown

"Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill." 

–– unknown 

via: Sketchbook 31, 2021, p. 107.

Quotes: Børge Ousland

Wellbeing is ...

"If I'm on an expedition, it can be as simple as a cup of lukewarm water – something you'd throw into the sink back at home. But, in a tent, when it is -40 degrees outside, it is the most wonderful thing. There is no wellbeing without a degree of suffering. Yet, wellbeing is also the ability to be present in your own life and to enjoy it. For me, that's the great thing about being an explorer. You are forced to be present in the moment; to focus on the the weather, the route or the terrain. On a good day, when the terrain isn't too dangerous, I will lift my head, take a good look around, and appreciate how privileged I am." 

–– Børge Ousland (b. 1962), Norwegian Polar explorer, writer and photographer 

Source: Elle Decoration UK, July 2017, p. 133. 

via: Sketchbook 31, 2021, p. 93.

Quotes: Dan Albergotti

Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale 

Measure the walls. Count the ribs. Notch the long days. Look up for blue sky through the spout. Make small fires with the broken hulls of fishing boats. Practice smoke signals. Call old friends, and listen for echoes of distant voices. Organize your calendar. Dream of the beach. Look each way for the dim glow of light. Work on your reports. Review each of your life's ten million choices. Endure moments of self-loathing. Find the evidence of those before you. Destroy it. Try to be very quiet, and listen for the sound of gears and moving water. Listen for the sound of your heart. Be thankful that you are here, swallowed with all hope, where you can rest and wait. Be nostalgic. Think of all the things you did and could have done. Remember treading water in the centre of the still night sea, your toes pointing again and again down, down into the black depths. 

–– Dan Albergotti, American poet and professor 

Source: Austin Kleon at beginning of pandemic lockdowns in 2020. 

via: Sketchbook 31, 2020, p. 70.

** If there was ever a perfect pandemic lockdown poem, this is it. The poetry of Mary Oliver also helped soothe me during the incessant lockdowns.

Quotes: Bill Elliot-Bristol

"Sometimes you win by being the best of what's left." 

–– Bill Elliot-Bristol (b. 1955), American stock car racing driver 

via: Sketchbook 31, 2019, p. 64.