"I needed my mistakes in their own order to get me here."
–– W. S. (William Stanley) Merwin (1927-2019), American poet
Source: W. S. Merwin, from "Wild Oats" in The Moon Before Morning via Artpropelled.
via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook 2017-2018 d, 2017, p. 20.
"There is the hidden presence of others in us, even those we have known briefly."
–– Michael Ondaatje (b. 1943), Sri Lankan-born Canadian writer, editor and filmmaker
Source: Michael Ondaatje, Divisadero via Artpropelled
via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook 2017-2018 d, 2017, p. 20.
"In the midst of winter, I finally found there was within me an invincible summer. For the summer that we all have inside to manifest we need to open the heart and take risks."
–– Albert Camus (1913-1960), French writer and philosopher
via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook 2017-2018 d, 2017, p. 15.
"When I walk out into the world, I take no thoughts with me. That's not easy, but you can learn to do it. An empty mind is hungry, so you can look at everything longer and closer. Don't hum! When you listen with empty ears, you hear more. And this is the core of the secret: Attention is the beginning of devotion."
–– Mary Oliver (1935-2019), American poet
via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook 2018 c, p. 48.
"I speak to my friend Lesley on the phone, lamenting my pending loss of this beautiful landscape with its limitless horizon. She understands only too well; she grew up in similar surroundings.
""When you have an unobstructed view," she muses, "Something happens to the mind ... it expands doesn't it?" Then she adds, "But if you look up, you'll see the clouds. The thing about clouds is that they tell you how to live."
""What do you mean?"
""They're always moving ... and that's what we're supposed to do, too.""
–– Plum Johnson (b. 1946/1947), American-born Canadian author
Source: Plum Johnson. They Left Us Everything: a memoir. Toronto: Penguin, 2014, p. 255.
via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook, 2017 c, p. 11.
"The art is not one of forgetting but letting go. And when everything else is gone, you can be rich in loss."
–– Rebecca Solnit (b. 1961), American author
via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook, 2017 b, p. 27.
"I heard a good anecdote: You have five buckets – life, fitness, sleep, work and friends – and at any given moment you can only really be juggling three of those five buckets."
–– Tatiana Read, founder of public relation agency The Knot Group, currently Senior Lead, Partnerships and Communications, General Assembly Pizza, Toronto, Ontario
Source: Odessa Paloma Parker. 'Going their own way.' The Globe and Mail, Saturday June 10, 2017, p. 9 (Style Section).
via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook, 2017 a, p. 24.
"What is the meaning of life? That was all – a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one."
–– Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), English writer, critic, & publisher
Source: Virginia Woolf. To the Lighthouse.
via: Art Alternatives knapsack sketchbook, 2017 a, p. 37.
"... I'm a fan of how people express themselves through clothes. That's the thing that compels me. I'm still most inspired by girls on the street that I walk past. I'll be like, "Oh that's an interesting way of wearing that!" It's all about context and juxtaposition and how they're mixing everything together."
–– Alexa Chung (b. 1983), fashion designer,model, television presenter, writer
Source: Jeanne Beker. 'Creative force.' The Globe and Mail. Saturday June 10, 2017 (Globe Style, Style setters column) p. 4.
via: Art Alternatives knapsack sketchbook, 2017 a , p. 23.
"I consider fashion to be a daily art."
–– Min Liu, Chinese fashion designer (fashion line is Ms. Min)
Source: Jeanne Beker. 'Creative force.' The Globe and Mail. Saturday June 10, 2017 (Globe Style, Style setters column) p. 4.
via: Art Alternatives knapsack sketchbook, 2017 a, p. 23.
"The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers."
–– James Baldwin (1924-1987), American writer and activist
via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook, 2017 a, p. 41.
"Let us not take it for granted that life exists more fully in what is commonly thought big than in what is commonly thought small."
–– Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), English writer, critic, & publisher
via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook, 2017 a, p. 19.
"Buy less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality, not quantity. Everybody's buying far too many clothes."
–– Vivienne Westwood (1941-2022), English fashion designer and activist
via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook, 2017 a, p. 6.
"Man is a complex of patterns and processes."
–– Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983), American architect, designer, inventor, futurist and writer
via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook, 2017 a, p. 3.
"True affluence is not needing anything."
–– Gary Snyder (b. 1930), American poet, essayist, lecturer and environmental activist
via: Vote Knapsack Sketchbook, 2020, p. 48.
"The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude."
–– Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German poet and philosopher
via: Vote Knapsack Sketchbook, 2020, p. 41.
"All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you. The only lasting truth is change. God is change."
–– Octavia Butler (1947-2006), American science fiction writer
via: Vote Knapsack Sketchbook, 2020, p. 32.
"Fate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant."
–– Gail Bowen (b. 1942), Canadian author and playwright
Source: Gail Bowen. The Gifted. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2013.
via: Anvil Sketchbook, 2018, p. 73.
"When your eyes are open you see beauty in anything."
–– Agnes Martin (1912-2004), Canadian-born American abstract painter
Source: Judy's Journal Blog July 24, 2018.
via: Anvil Sketchbook, 2018, p. 72.
Maggie's Farm
"Well, I try my best
To be just like I am
But everybody wants you
To be just like them
They say, "Sing while you slave," and I just get bored."
–– Bob Dylan (b. 1941), American singer and songwriter
via: Anvil Sketchbook, 2018, p. 65.
"What you seek is seeking you."
–– Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (1207-1273), Persian poet and Sufi mystic; interpretation by Coleman Barks (b. 1937), American poet
via: Anvil Sketchbook 2018, p. 59.
"Get busy with life's purpose, toss aside empty hopes, get active in your own rescue."
–– Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD), Roman Emperor and Stoic Philosopher
via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 146.
"Being poor is not having too little, it is wanting more."
–– Seneca (4 BC - AD 65), Roman Stoic philosopher, dramatist, statesman
via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 145.
