“I don’t write. I put down my thoughts.” I love that quote from “Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations.” Guston quotes others pretty well too like Paul Valery. “A bad poem is one that vanishes into meaning.” This book covers the same ground that Fred Lipp does in our painting classes.
Addressing the whole:
“You paint the form without looking at the form but looking at the whole.”
Locating forms:
“The form is not just executed there. It must emerge from this background or environment.”
On visible erasures:
“Erasures represent erasures of notions and of good intentions.”
Starting over:
“To paint is to start over everytime.”
Frustration:
“Frustration is one of the great things in art. Satisfaction is nothing.”
Trouble:
“You have to have trouble and contradictions. It has to be complex because life is complex, emotions are complex.”
Imagery:
“Imagery is endless. The image thing and pursuing the image is endless. It changes you. That’s the most wonderful thing. It makes you shake. the other thing I want, and what I think an artist wants, is to be baffled all the time. Baffled, puzzled, new problems. Problem. A terrible word. I don’t mean problem. Baffled. To become dumb. Innocent – how?”
Creation:
“Real art makes you shake. Let’s not kid ourselves. Creation is force. It’s a power. It’s not a craft. It’s a power and a force and everybody has that force. If you don’t open yourself up to this power then get out.”