Food for Thought: Alice Neel
Food for thought is where I share a quote I’ve come across for your reflection and discussion 
among the other artists in the mindful artist community.
If you’ve been following me for a while you may have gathered that I’m a keen student of the creative process. I’m always interested in other artists’ experience of their art practice and how it can help us better understand and navigate our own.
My loving husband gave me this book on Alice Neel for Christmas that I’ve just begun reading so I thought a quote from Alice Neel might be in order.
You should keep on painting no matter how difficult it is, because this is all part of experience, and the more experience you have, the better it is… unless it kills you, and then you know you have gone too far.
– Alice Neel
What about you? Do you feel you ought to keep making your work even though it is difficult?
Can you give an example of a “difficult” time in your work?
What does it mean to you to have gone too far?
Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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Food for Thought: David Hockney
“Any artist will tell you he’s really only interested in the stuff he’s doing now. He will, always. It’s true, and it should be like that”
– David Hockney
What about you? Are you only interested in the work you are currently involved with? Or do you tend to look back on older work? Do you ever feel the work you created in the past is stronger or better work than the work you are presently engaged in?
Do you cherish your older work in such a way that you have a hard time selling it because of your attachment to it?
How does this impact your getting your work out into the world? Do you ever delay sending out work because the next body of work will be even better?
Let’s get the conversation started! Please leave your comments below.
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What Inspires You?
In this feature, each month artists share one thing that excites them creatively.
One key piece to support healthy, productive creativity is stimulating inputs. What kinds of things stimulate the creative centers of the brain? What kind of inputs stimulate us visually? Emotionally? Spiritually? Mentally? Physically?
I’d really like to know, what’s one thing that fills your creative cup? Share with us in the comment section below.
What Inspires You?
Linda Ursin
What inspires me?
Anything and everything. It’s hard for me to pick one. I can’t really say I know where it comes from. I’m multi-creative, which means I create in many different ways.
Linda Ursin
Website: heksebua.com/linda
What Inspires You?
Leo Anderson
What inspires me?
Ideas come from everywhere. God gave us a lot to work with and putting it together in a unique way intrigues us all. Make notes. Your mind is full and universal mind has all – so take notes on what comes to you. It doesn’t matter if you’re working on a thing or not. Put a date on it. Do everything you do perfect because it’s all only single steps. Nature is full, observe!Leo
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Food for Thought – Hurston
This month’s quote is from a writer. I learn so much from reading all kinds of artists – dancers, writers, actors, musicians – speak about their process. I don’t feel it’s that different in other mediums.
“Perhaps, it is just as well to be rash and foolish for a while. If writers were too wise, perhaps no books would get written at all. It might be better to ask yourself ‘Why?’ afterward than before. Anyway, the force from somewhere in Space which commands you to write in the first place, gives you no choice. You take up the pen when you are told, and write what is commanded. There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you.”
Zora Neale Hurston from Dust Tracks on A Road
What about you? Is there anything in Zora’s words you can relate to? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.
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Food for Thought: Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter Painting movie last week. Definitely would recommend it if you are interested in painting in general, and his work in particular. I think he is an interesting painter, definitely not one of my favorites, but I rarely miss an opportunity to watch a documentary on an artist.
I have a book of interviews with Richter and his own writings called The Daily Practice of Painting: Writings 1962 – 1993 from which I pulled this month’s quote:
“Pleasure is only one aspect [of painting]. Nothing can be done without it; but if that’s all there is to it, it merely bores and irritates the viewer. The objective side has to come in, through which painting offers something of universal interest: a statement, a new quality, an advance – something the other person can do something with.”
Your thoughts? Agree? Disagree?
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