Sometimes I see it and then paint it. Other times I paint it and then see it. Both are impure situations, and I prefer neither.
Jasper JohnsRead
This image of wanting to be an artist - that I would in some way become an artist -was very strong. I knew for a long, long time that that's what I would be. But nothing I ever did seemed to bring me any nearer to the condition of being an artist. And I didn't know how to do it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses the struggle and longing of an individual to be recognized as an artist, despite feeling distant from that identity.
Jasper Johns reflects on his intense desire to become an artist, revealing the internal conflict between aspiration and the reality of not knowing how to achieve that artistic identity. He acknowledges the strength of his resolve, yet also the frustration of feeling detached from the very goals he yearns for, highlighting the complex emotional journey that often accompanies artistic ambition.
Themes
ArtistAspirationIdentityStruggleCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about pursuing dreams in the arts.
More from Jasper Johns
All quotes →To be an artist you have to give up everything, including the desire to be a good artist.
Jasper JohnsRead
The only logical thing I can think of is that I knew there were such things as artists, and I knew there were none where I lived. So I knew that to be an artist you had to be somewhere else. And I very much wanted to be somewhere else.
Jasper JohnsRead
One wants one's work to be the world, but of course it's never the world. The work is in the world; it never contains the whole thing.
Jasper JohnsRead
Sometime during the mid-50s I said, 'I am an artist.' Before that, for many years, I had said, 'I'm going to be an artist.' Then I went through a change of mind and a change of heart. What made 'going to be an artist' into 'being an artist', was, in part, a spiritual change.
Jasper JohnsRead
Make something, a kind of object, which as it changes or falls apart (dies as it were) or increases in its parts (grows as it were) offers no clue as to what its state or form or nature was at any previous time. Physical and Metaphysical. Obstinacy. Could this be a useful object?
Jasper JohnsRead
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