I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don't have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.
Virginia WoolfRead
One wanted, she thought, dipping her brush deliberately, to be on a level with ordinary experience, to feel simply that's a chair, that's a table, and yet at the same time, It's a miracle, it's an ecstasy.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a desire to appreciate the ordinary while recognizing its deeper beauty.
Virginia Woolf reflects on the paradox of wanting to engage with the mundane aspects of life, like a chair or a table, while simultaneously acknowledging the miraculous quality of existence that infuses these everyday items with profound significance. This highlights the artist's intention to capture both reality and the extraordinary within it.
In practice
This quote could be used in an art class discussion about appreciating everyday objects.
I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don't have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.
Death is woven in with the violets,” said Louis. “Death and again death.”)
He began to search among the infinite series of impressions which time had laid down, leaf upon leaf, fold upon fold softly, incessantly upon his brain; among scents, sounds; voices, harsh, hollow, sweet; and lights passing, and brooms tapping; and the wash and hush of the sea.
I want to think quietly, calmly, spaciously, never to be interrupted, never to have to rise from my chair, to slip easily from one thing to another, without any sense of hostility, or obstacle. I want to sink deeper and deeper, away from the surface, with its hard separate facts.
I do think all good and evil comes from words. I have to tune myself into a good temper with something musical, and I run to a book as a child to its mother.
London perpetually attracts, stimulates, gives me a play and a story and a poem, without any trouble, save that of moving my legs through the streets... To walk alone through London is the greatest rest.
Every animator is really an actor performing in slow motion, living the character a drawing at a time.
Art, well good art at least, takes you to a place you go during the experience of it, and then after you experience it you are different.
What's swinging in words? If a guy makes you pat your foot and if you feel it down your back, you don't have to ask anybody if that's good music or not. You can always feel it.
I love to go to the studio and stay there 10 or 12 hours a day. I love it. What is it? I don't know. It's life.
For too many centuries women have been being muses to artists. I wanted to be the muse, I wanted to be the wife of the artist, but I was really trying to avoid the final issue — that I had to do the job myself.
They are fairies; he that speaks to them shall die. I'll wink and couch; no man their works must eye.
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