Frustration is one of the great things in art. Satisfaction is nothing.
Interpretation
Frustration is a crucial part of the artistic process, while satisfaction is ultimately unimportant.
In this quote, Philip Guston highlights the importance of frustration in the creative journey. He suggests that the struggle and challenges faced during the artistic process are essential for growth and expression, whereas the final satisfaction of completing a piece is trivial in comparison to the experiences gained along the way.
In practice
In a discussion about creativity at an art workshop.
No good to paint in the head - what happens is what happens when you put the paint down - you can only hope that you are alert - ready - to see. What joy it is for paint to become a thing - a being. Believe in this miracle - it is your only hope. To will this transformation is not possible. Only a slow maturation can prepare the hand and eye to become quicker than ever. Ideas about art don't matter. They collapse anyway in front of the painting.
I go to the studio everyday because one day I may go and the Angel will be there. What if I don't go and the Angel comes?
You know, comments about style always seem strange to me - 'why do you work in this style, or in that style' - as if you had a choice in the matter... What you're doing is trying to stay alive and continue and not die.
If the artist starts evaluating himself, itβs an enormous block, isnβt it?
Painting is an illusion, a piece of magic, so what you see is not what you see.
Probably the most potent desire for a painter, an image-maker, is to see it. To see what the mind can think and imagine, to realize it for oneself, through oneself, as concretely as possible.
Being a Negro writer these days is a racket and I'm going to make the most of it while it lasts. About twice a year I sell a story. It is acclaimed. I am a genius in the making. Thank God for this Negro literary renaissance. Long may it flourish
Art really has its source in the transcendent, the unmanifest field of pure consciousness, which is the non-changing, immortal field of all possibilities...When the awareness of the artist is in tune with this center of infinite creativity, his piece of art breathes fullness of life, nourishes the creator, the artist, and inspires his admirers with waves of bliss.
Passion is in all great searches and is necessary to all creative endeavors.
All my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it.
Type well used is invisible as type, just as the perfect talking voice is the unnoticed vehicle for the transmission of words, ideas.
It's hard to make something that's interesting. It's really, really hard. It's like a law of nature, a law of aerodynamics, that anything that's written or anything that's created wants to be mediocre. The natural state of all writing is mediocrity... So what it takes to make anything more than mediocre is such an act of will.
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