It is a mistake for a sculptor or a painter to speak or write very often about his job. It releases tension needed for his work.
Interpretation
Artists should avoid excessive discussion about their work to maintain the creative tension necessary for their art.
Henry Moore suggests that for artists such as sculptors and painters, discussing their creative process can undermine the focus and intensity needed to create their artwork. By advocating for a more reserved approach to explaining their craft, he emphasizes the importance of preserving the energy and inspiration that drive artistic expression.
In practice
An artist sharing this quote during a gallery opening to explain his approach to creativity.
Recently I have been working in the country, where, carving in the open air, I find sculpture more natural than in a London studio, but it needs bigger dimensions. A large piece of stone or wood placed almost anywhere at random in a field, orchard, or garden, immediately looks right and inspiring.
I find in all the artists that I admire most a disturbing element, a distortion, giving evidence of a struggle . . . . In great art, this conflict is hidden, it is unresolved. All that is bursting with energy is disturbing - not perfect.
Between beauty of expression and power of expression there is a difference of function. The first aims at pleasing the senses, the second has a spiritual vitality which for me is more moving and goes deeper than the senses.
A work can have in it a pent-up energy, an intense life of its own, independent of the subject it may represent.
I have always liked drawing, when you draw you see things more intensely.
The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for the rest of your life. And the most important thing is, it must be something you cannot possibly do.
Painting is marvelous; it makes you happier and more patient. Afterwards you do not have black fingers as with writing, but blue and red ones.
If I heard someone else singing like me, I would buy it in a heartbeat.
To see the butcher slap the steak before he laid it on the block, and give his knife a sharpening, was to forget breakfast instantly. It was agreeable too - it really was - to see him cut it off so smooth and juicy. There was nothing savage in the act, although the knife was large and keen; it was a piece of art, high art; there was delicacy of touch, clearness of tone, skilful handling of the subject, fine shading. It was the triumph of mind over matter; quite.
I have always wanted my art to service my people - to reflect us, to relate to us, to stimulate us, to make us aware of our potential. We have to create an art for liberation and for life.
Writing poetry is such an intense experience that it helps to start the process in a casual or wayward frame of mind.
Getting the player emotionally involved is the holy grail. We try to make players forget they're playing a game. We want them to live the experience and suspend disbelief.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.