Paint the flying spirit of the bird rather than its feathers.
Robert HenriRead
You form a society: that limits you. Adopt a name, and you've limited yourself again; draw up a constitution and bylaws and you've made a groove, a rut, that hampers your growth. You think you can fix your course and move straight along it. But sometimes the important thing is to strike out sidewise.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that societal labels and structures can confine personal growth and creativity.
Robert Henri's quote emphasizes the limitations that society imposes on individuals through names, constitutions, and established norms. By adopting these labels and frameworks, people can inadvertently restrict their potential, believing they must follow a predetermined path. Henri advocates for the idea of deviating from these established routes to encourage growth and exploration, emphasizing that sometimes it is more important to step away from the norm and take risks in order to achieve true personal development.
Themes
SocietyGrowthLimitationsCreativityRisk
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about personal development, to inspire students to think outside societal norms.
More from Robert Henri
All quotes →Know what the old masters did. Know how they composed their pictures, but do not fall into the conventions they established. These conventions were right for them, and they are wonderful. They made their language. You make yours. All the past can help you.
Robert HenriRead
The sketch hunter moves through life as he finds it, not passing negligently the things he loves, but stopping to know them, and to note them down in the shorthand of his sketchbook.
Robert HenriRead
After all, the goal is not making art. It is living a life. Those who live their lives will leave the stuff that is really art.
Robert HenriRead
Do not let the fact that things are not made for you, that conditions are not as they should be stop you. Go on anyway. Everything depends on those who go on anyway.
Robert HenriRead
Drawing is not following a line on the model, it is drawing your sense of the thing.
Robert HenriRead
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