The ear disapproves but tolerates certain musical pieces; transfer them into the domain of our nose, and we will be forced to flee.
Jean CocteauRead
Artists can no more speak about their work, than plants can speak about horticulture.
Interpretation
Artists find it challenging to articulate their creative process, much like plants cannot explain their growth methods.
This quote emphasizes the idea that the essence of artistic expression is often beyond verbal explanation, similar to how plants grow and thrive without the ability to communicate their needs or processes. It suggests that true understanding of art comes from a place beyond words, encompassing feelings, intuition, and subconscious thought.
In practice
During an art exhibition, one might say this quote to convey the deep, often unexplainable connection artists have with their creations.
The ear disapproves but tolerates certain musical pieces; transfer them into the domain of our nose, and we will be forced to flee.
One must be a living man and a posthumous artist.
All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.
Nothing ever gets anywhere. The earth keeps turning round and gets nowhere. The moment is the only thing that counts.
Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don't like - then cultivate it. That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping.
Watch yourself all your life in a mirror and you'll see Death at work like bees in a glass hive.
I consider it useless and tedious to represent what exists, because nothing that exists satisfies me. Nature is ugly, and I prefer the monsters of my fancy to what is positively trivial.
The sheer ease with which we can produce a superficial image often leads to creative disaster.
And If the surgeon is like a poet, then the scars you have made on countless bodies are like verses into the fashioning of which you have poured your soul.
I'm always aware of the camera and it feels like that's the audience.
There's no diploma in the world that declares you as an artistβit's not like becoming a doctor. You can declare yourself an artist and then figure out how to be an artist.
I wanted to make my stories, which are inspired by Asian stories, into something fresh, decontextualized - to give them new life as a new kind of fantasy that isn't so cloying and exotic and strange.
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