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Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking QUOTES

Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking QUOTES

21 " What artist has not experienced the feverish euphoria of composing the perfect thumbnail sketch, first draft, negative or melody — only to run headlong into a stone wall trying to convert that tantalizing hint into the finished mural, novel, photograph, sonata. The artist’s life is frustrating not because the passage is slow, but because he imagines it to be fast. "

― , Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

22 " At any point along that path, your job as an artist is to push craft to its limits — without being trapped by it. The trap is perfection: unless your work continually generates new and unresolved issues, there’s no reason for your next work to be any different from the last. "

― , Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

23 " Making art now means working in the face of uncertainty ; it means living with doubt and contradiction, doing something no one much cares whether you do, and for which there may be neither audience nor reward. Making the work you want to make means setting aside these doubts so that you may see clearly what you have done, and thereby see where to go next. Making the work you want to make means finding nourishment within the work itself. "

― , Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

24 " Most of us spend most of our time in other peoples’ worlds — working at predetermined jobs, relaxing to pre-packaged entertainment — and no matter how benign this ready-made world may be, there will always be times when something is missing or doesn’t quite ring true. "

― , Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

25 " But the important point here is not that you have — or don’t have — what other artists have, but rather that it doesn’t matter. Whatever they have is something needed to do their work — it wouldn’t help you in your work even if you had it. Their magic is theirs. You don’t lack it. You don’t need it. It has nothing to do with you. Period. EXPECTATIONS "

― , Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

26 " Uncertainty is the essential, inevitable and all-pervasive companion to your desire to make art. And tolerance for uncertainty is the prerequisite to succeeding. "

― , Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

27 " Between the initial idea and the finished piece lies a gulf we can see across, but never fully chart. The truly special moments in artmaking lie in those moments when concept is converted to reality — those moments when the gulf is being crossed. "

― , Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

28 " 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. "

― , Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

29 " Nature places a simple constraint on those who leave the flock to go their own way: they get eaten. In society it's a bit more complicated. Nonetheless the admonition stands: avoiding the unknown has considerable survival value. Society, nature, and artmaking tend to produce guarded creatures. "

― , Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

30 " Making art can feel dangerous and revealing. Making art is dangerous and revealing. Making art precipitates self-doubt, stirring deep waters that lay between what you know you should be, and what you fear you might be. "

― , Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

31 " If art is made by ordinary people, then you’d have to allow that the ideal artist would be an ordinary person too, with the whole usual mixed bag of traits that real human beings possess. This is a giant hint about art, because it suggests that our flaws and weaknesses, while often obstacles to our getting work done, are a source of strength as well. Something about making art has to do with overcoming things, giving us a clear opportunity for doing things in ways we have always known we should do them. "

― , Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

32 " In the end it all comes down to this: you have a choice (or more accurately a rolling tangle of choices) between giving your work your best shot and risking that it will not make you happy, or not giving it your best shot — and thereby guaranteeing that it will not make you happy. It becomes a choice between certainty and uncertainty. And curiously, uncertainty is the comforting choice. "

― , Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking