What is real for me are the illusions I create with my paintings. Everything else is quicksand.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the subjective nature of reality, suggesting that personal creations hold more value than the external world's uncertainties.
Eugene Delacroix expresses the idea that reality is shaped by personal experiences and perceptions, particularly through the lens of art. He implies that the illusions crafted in his paintings are more substantial and meaningful to him than the transient and unstable nature of the external world, which he likens to quicksand. This reflects a deep commitment to creativity and an understanding of how art can provide a sense of stability and truth amidst life's uncertainties.
In practice
This quote can be used to inspire artists during workshops about personal expression.
The outcome of my days is always the same; an infinite desire for what one never gets; a void one cannot fill; an utter yearning to produce in all ways, to battle as much as possible against time that drags us along, and the distractions that throw a veil over our soul.
Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who can't attain it in anything.
A picture is nothing but a bridge between the soul of the artist and that of the spectator.
Experience has two things to teach. The first is that we must correct a great deal and the second, that we must not correct too much.
The source of genius is imagination alone, the refinement of the senses that sees what others do not see, or sees them differently.
Glory to that Homer of painting, to that father of warmth and enthusiasm... he really paints men.
When writing loses touch with the beautiful surface of the world, it loses its way. You always want to be in touch with how things look and what people say and what they call their dogs.
We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.
Scientists do stand on the shoulders of giants, just as do writers. Conversely, in the arts we do make discoveries. We do refine our tools. So I am arguing with, or at least playing with, the idea that art never improves.
Good cinema is what we can believe and bad cinema is what we can't believe. What you see and believe in is very much what I'm interested in.
If you can even manage to tell exactly what a song is about, all you do is put that song in a box forever, and it loses its evocative power.
If you have the opportunity for your art to meet activism, you shouldn't pass that up when it comes your way.
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