Art is Hard Work

Smoke & Mirrors - Weiner

Artists have known it for centuries: Art is hard work.

     When artworks are completed and hung on a wall or placed on a podium -- displayed in all their glory -- few people would guess the work's 'back-story' and what went into making the art.

     Clean and dressed up for a public exhibition, the Artists look like 'normal people.' To look at us, few would guess how hard making art is or how much effort and expense (not just materials, but time, thought, energy,...) goes into each piece of art. Some of us get really messy when painting. We often agonize over each step in the creative process. We go to bed and wake up thinking about it. But would we change anything about our path as artists?  Never! Art is our choice, our vocation, our way of life.

     These quotes by some of my favorite painters and sculptors help explain the idea of Art as work and a life-long and often tumultuous journey:

Henry Moore: "There's no retirement for an artist, it's your way of living and there's no end to it." [UK]
Constantin Brancusi: "Create like a god, command like a king, work like a slave." [French]
Richard Diebenkorn: "Of course, I don't go into the studio with the idea of 'saying' something - that's ludicrous. What I do is face the blank canvas, which is terrifying."
Pablo Picasso: "Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working."

                                                                         Have a wonderful and creative week!
                                                                            Yours in Art,
                                                                                Elaine

Moore

Diebenkorn

Picasso

Brancusi