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.
When I have had such men before my camera my whole soul has endeavored to do its duty towards them in recording faithfully the greatness of the inner as well as the features of the outer man. The photograph thus taken has been almost the embodiment of a prayer.
Design in art, is a recognition of the relation between various things, various elements in the creative flux. You can't invent a design. You recognize it, in the fourth dimension. That is, with your blood and your bones, as well as with your eyes.
If you can actually get someone to sit on the edge of their seat and feel nervous if there's a knock at the door, then you've done something pretty terrific as a writer.
But art is not simply works of art; it is the spirit that knows Beauty, that has music in its soul and the color of sunsets in its headkerchiefs; that can dance on a flaming world and make the world dance, too.
There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.
Every man has a different idea of what's beautiful, and it's best to take the gesture, the shadow of the branch, and let the mind create the tree.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.