Art is the fatal net which catches these strange moments on the wing like mysterious butterflies, fleeing the innocence and distraction of common men.
Interpretation
Art captures fleeting moments that escape the ordinary, preserving their beauty.
This quote by Giorgio De Chirico suggests that art has the unique power to seize ephemeral moments that might otherwise be lost in the mundane distractions of everyday life. By likening these moments to 'mysterious butterflies', the quote emphasizes the delicate and transient nature of beauty, and how art serves as a 'fatal net' that preserves them for contemplation and appreciation.
In practice
During an art exhibition, I quoted this to emphasize the importance of capturing fleeting beauty through creativity.
What release to write so that one forgets oneself, forgets one's companion, forgets where one is or what one is going to do next to be drenched in sleep or in the sea. Pencils and pads and curling blue sheets alive with letters heap up on the desk.
Something in me knows where Iβm going, and - well, painting is a state of being. ... Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.
Inscribe all human effort with one word, artistry's haunting curse, the Incomplete!
You don't have to make something that people call art. Living is an artistic activity, there is an art to getting through the day.
Constant work, constant writing and constant revision. The real writer learns nothing from life. He is more like an oyster or a sponge. What he takes in he takes in normally the way any person takes in experience. But it is what is done with it in his mind, if he is a real writer, that makes his art.
Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness.
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