Quotes: Annette Messager

"Being an artist means incessantly healing one's own wounds and simultaneously opening them again in the process." 

–– Annette Messager (b. 1943), French visual artist 

Source: Judy Martin, Judy's Journal, 2022

Quotes: John Oliver Hobbes

"An artist is a person who thinks more than there is to think, feels more than there is to feel, and sees more than there is to see." 

–– John Oliver Hobbes (1867-1906), American-born, British novelist and dramatist, pen-name of Pearl Mary Teresa Richards

via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2006, p. 40. 

Quotes: Agnes de Mille

"Disappointment has gotten a bad reputation, but it's where you're going to spend most of your time if you're any kind of artist."

 –– Agnes de Mille (1905-1993), American dancer and choreographer 

Quotes: Nick Bantock

"Of all the reasons for being an artist, there is one that outweighs all others: Art offers a path to our souls.

"But the path isn't direct. There are no shortcuts. The road is confusing, and seemingly getting lost along the way is inevitable.

"However, perhaps that is the point. After all, if it were simply a matter of going from A to B as the crow flies, how much would we learn along the way? In order to gather wisdom, we are obliged to stumblebum, our search careening us against the periphery of our comfort and comprehension."

–– Nick Bantock (b. 1949), British author and artist based in Canada 

Source: Nick Bantock. The Trickster's Hat: A Mischievous Apprenticeship in Creativity. New York: A Perigree Book (Penguin Group), 2014; p. 4. 

via: Commonplace Book, 2013-2014, 2014, p. 101.

Quotes: John Kander

"Being an artist is much more like being a carpenter than like being God... What we do is a craft. I mean you can have a great inner talent and a lot of people do, but without craft it's very hard for the talent to emerge." 

–– John Kander (b. 1927), American theatre composer

Source: Adam Moss. The Work of Art: How Something Comes From Nothing. New York: Penguin Press, 2024; p. 15.

via 2020 Aboveground Art Supplies Knapsack Sketchbook, 2024 p. 48.

Quotes: André Gide

"Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better."

–– André Gide (1869-1951), French writer 

Source: Adam Moss. The Work of Art: How Something Comes From Nothing. New York: Penguin Press, 2024; p. 11.

via 2020 Aboveground Art Supplies Knapsack Sketchbook, 2024 p. 47.

Quotes: Pablo Picasso

"Learn the rules like a pro, so that you can break them like an artist."

–– Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Spanish artist 

via: Commonplace Book 2022-2024, 2023, p.178.  

Quotes: Unknown

"It is an artist's job to get lost. If you always know where you are, you've missed the point." 

–– Author unknown 

via: Commonplace Book 1999-2001, 2001.

Quotes: Taylor Mac

"An artist's job is to dream the culture forward." 

–– Taylor Mac (b. 1973), American performer, singer-songwriter, playwright 

Source: Austin Kleon newsletter Friday August 25, 2023. 

via: Sketchbook 33, 2023, p. 88.

Quotes: Eugène Delacroix

"It is often we come the closest to the essence of an artist in his or her pocket notebooks and travel sketchbooks where written comments and personal notes provide an intimate insight into the magical mind of a working artist." 

–– Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), French artist 

Source: Art Propelled, October 31, 2019

 via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook 2019 h, 2019, p. 38. 

Women's quotes: Hanya Yanagihara

"[Y]ou will never be an artist if you don't finish your work. It sounds so simple, and so obvious, and it is. But it's also true: You will never become an artist if you don't spend every day being an artist.

Talent is sexy. Work is not. Only one, however is actually essential. Your career begins if you have the former. But it's finished if you don't do the latter." 

–– Hanya Yanagihara (b. 1974), American writer and editor 

Source: New York Times Style Magazine. 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2019, p. 131. 

Women's quotes: Rachel Naomi Remen

"At the deepest level, the creative process and the healing process arise from a single source. When you are an artist, you are a healer; a wordless trust of the same mystery is the foundation of your work and its integrity." 

–– Rachel Naomi Remen (b. 1938), American physician and teacher 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2018, p. 101. 

Quotes: Joseph Campbell

"The only difference between the mystic and the artist is that the artist has a craft that ties him to the world."

–– Joseph Campbell (1904-1987), American author and professor 

via: Sketchbook 28, 2016, p. 123. 

Quotes: Henry Moore

"One never knows what each day is going to bring. The important thing is to be open and ready for it." 

–– Henry Moore (1898-1986), British artist 

via: Sketchbook A, 2018, p. 55.

Quotes: Auguste Rodin

"The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire, and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation." 

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

Quotes: Jacques-Henri Lartigue

"Dissatisfaction with one's self and dissatisfaction with the world is necessary ... it is one of the prime things that keeps the artist going on." 

–– Jacques-Henri Lartigue (1894-1986), French photographer and painter

Quotes: Paul Rand

"The artist is a collector of things imaginary or real. He accumulates things with the same enthusiasm that a little boy stuffs his pockets. The scrap heap and the museum are embraced with equal curiosity. He takes snapshots, makes notes and records impressions on tablecloths or newspapers, on backs of envelopes or matchbooks. Why one thing and not another is part of the mystery, but he is omnivorous." 

–– Paul Rand (1914-1996), American art director and graphic designer 

Source: Paul Rand. Paul Rand: A Designer's Art. Yale University Press, 1985; p. 79 

via Sketchbook 17, 2011, p. 67

Quotes: John Baldessari

"Every artist should have a cheap line. It keeps art ordinary." 

–– John Baldessari (1931-2020), American painter and conceptual artist