Make Art Quotes

“We are doing it, me and you. We are doing it with heart. And with art. And with soul and blind faith and ancient knowing. Because we have to. Because there are people who need us to. Because WE need us to most of all.
No matter how discouraged you’ve been. No matter how the destructive old patterns have been returning, knocking loudly at your door. No matter the moments of utter freeze or massive resistance or sheer exhaustion. Go out today and make something. Something brave and defiant and determined and true. And then muster up your last bit of moxie and hold out your arms and offer it to the world.

Say “I made this. For me and for you”.

Say “ This is what keeps me from the rabbit hole”.

Say “This is how I go on”.

Say “I see you, too and I know how hard it is and I want you to have this to make it a little bit better”

I promise. It changes things.
For all of us.”
― Jeanette LeBlanc

“The overwhelming joy the artist gets from bringing art into existence, the mystic gets from existence.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Timid young artists, adding parental fears to their own, often give up their sunny dreams of artistic careers, settling into the twilight world of could-have-beens and regrets.”
― Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

“Solve problems, make art, think deeply.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“We were in Julie’s room one night, my eldest daughter and I, maybe a decade ago now. I wanted to show her how the canvas painting she had carefully labored over for her little sister's Christmas gift was framed and hung on the wall.

I said, gazing at her masterpiece with no small amount of motherly pride, “Now it looks like a real work of art”.

Bella looked at me quizzically, wondering yet again how her mother could possibly understand so little about the world.

“Mama, every time you make something, or draw something, or paint something, it is already real art. There is no such thing as art that is not real”

And so I said that she was right, and didn’t it look nice, and once again, daughter became guru and mother became willing student.

Which is, I sometimes think, the way it was meant to be.

~~~~~

art is always real.
all of it.
even the stuff you don’t understand.
even the stuff you don’t like.
even the stuff that you made that you would be embarrassed to show your best friend

that photo that you took when you first got your DSLR, when you captured her spirit perfectly but the focus landed on her shoulder?

still art.

the painting you did last year the first time you picked up a brush, the one your mentor critiqued to death?

it’s art.

the story you are holding in your heart and so desperately want to tell the world?

definitely art.

the scarf you knit for your son with the funky messed up rows?

art. art. art.

the poem scrawled on your dry cleaning receipt at the red light.

the dress you want to sew.

the song you want to sing.

the clay you’ve not yet molded.

everything you have made

or will one day make

or imagine making in your wildest dreams.

it’s all real, every last bit.
because there is no such thing
as art that is not real.”
― Jeanette LeBlanc

“Truth? Sometimes I question every last thing I’m doing.
Truth? Right now, those questions swirl every damn day.
Is this also true for you?
Still, we keep moving forward, you and I. We try new things. We doggedly keep on doing the old things because though they may not have worked in the past it doesn’t feel like crazy to continue, it feels like the space of trusting some wild sort of knowing. We love, good and hard. We show up for life. In the midst of depression, insanely messy houses, and bank accounts sliding closer and closer to that fine red line, and panic attacks, and kids who won’t listen but who damn well know how to question and love.
And we make stuff. My god, the way we keep on making stuff. Because we can and we have to. Because it’s the only damn thing that feels right when everything else feels a hundred kinds of wrong. We create. Defiant and determined and true. Weary hearts brought to blazing life if only for those wild moments we dance with the muse.”
― Jeanette LeBlanc

“Writing was her escape and her rescue.”
― Dana Hewitt, New City

“Human artistic expression is blessedly, refreshingly nonessential. That's exactly why I love it so much. [...] The fact that I get to spend my life making objectively useless things means [...] I am not exclusively chained to the grind of mere survival. It means we still have space left in our civilization for the luxuries of imagination and beauty and emotion - and even total frivilousness.

Pure creativity is magnificent expressly because it is the opposite of everything else in life that's essential or inescapable (food, shelter, medicine [...]). Pure creativity is something better than necessity; it's a gift. It's the frosting.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

“There is a God who is there, and who is personal, and who accepts art (music) as a praise to Himself, as worship, when given to Him in this sincere way- without being strained through the 'strainer' of human acceptance.
If we follow the urging of God, we would not be embarrassed to fulfill our urge to create(make music) for God's ears alone.
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth.”
― Edith Schaeffer, The Hidden Art of Homemaking

“Beauty is important. It gives us hope.”
― Emma Frost

“Frank: No-one wants to buy my art.

Man: So do it for yourself. Beauty is important, Frank. It gives us hope.”
― Emma Frost

“There is a very thin line between wisely striving for your best and foolishly striving for perfection.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“To create art is to dance to the tune of your he[art].”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Night of a Thousand Thoughts

“Create art for art's sake, not for profit’s sake.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Night of a Thousand Thoughts

“A passionate person creates, not to gain admiration, but for the sheer joy of creating.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Night of a Thousand Thoughts