Every canvas is a journey all its own.
Helen FrankenthalerRead
Art has a will of its own. It has nothing to do with the taste of the moment or what's expected of you. That's a formula for dead art, or fashionable art.
Interpretation
Art exists independently of trends and external expectations, and true creativity arises from genuine expression.
In this quote, Helen Frankenthaler emphasizes the intrinsic value of art, arguing that it should not be confined to current trends or societal expectations. When art is created merely to please or align with what is popular, it loses its vitality and becomes 'dead art.' True artistic expression derives from a deep personal will, standing apart from fleeting fashions and embracing authenticity.
In practice
During a lecture about the importance of authenticity in artistic expression.
Every canvas is a journey all its own.
There are many accidents that are nothing but accidents-and forget it. But there are some that were brought about only because you are the person you are... you have the wherewithal, intelligence, and energy to recognize it and do something with it.
I don't start with a color order, but find the colors as I go.
We would sift through every inch of what it was that worked, or if it didn't, and wonder what was effective in it, in terms of paint, the subject matter, the size, the drawing.
What concerns me when I work, is not whether the picture is a landscape, or whether it's pastoral, or whether somebody will see a sunset in it. What concerns me is - did I make a beautiful picture?
I don't resent being a female painter. I don't exploit it. I paint.
Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.
What's swinging in words? If a guy makes you pat your foot and if you feel it down your back, you don't have to ask anybody if that's good music or not. You can always feel it.
When I write, what I long for is not more realism or fiction but more courage. That's what I always find myself short on and what I have to struggle to achieve in order that the work might live.
When the woman you live with is an artist, every day is a surprise.
I knew from the age of five what I wanted to do. The one thing I could do was draw. I couldn't draw that much better than some of the other kids, but I cared more and I wanted it badly.
As you begin to realize that every different type of music, everybody's individual music, has its own rhythm, life, language and heritage, you realize how life changes, and you learn how to be more open and adaptive to what is around us.
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