The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web. The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.
Interpretation
Artists absorb emotions from various sources, and the real issue lies in our expectation of a problem-free experience.
This quote by Theodore Isaac Rubin emphasizes the role of the artist as a vessel that receives inspiration from diverse elements of the world. It suggests that creativity stems from embracing emotions and experiences, while also highlighting that challenges are a natural part of the artistic process and not something to be avoided or deemed problematic.
In practice
In an art class, to inspire students to embrace their struggles as part of the creative process.
I must learn to love the fool in me the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries.
Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.
The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.
Health is relative. There is no such thing as an absolute state of health or sickness. Everyone's physical, mental, and emotional condition is a combination of both.
Invest in the "process" rather than the product. Process living neutralizes the depleting and impoverishing effects of chronically living in anticipation. Even when impossible goals occasionally are reached, satisfactions derived from them are invariably disappointing unless the process has given ample satisfaction along the way.
Sometimes the routes leading to feelings of anger are so convoluted and circuitous that it takes enormous skill to discern their original source, or fountainhead. But regardless of the reason for or the source of the anger or the relative ease or complexity in perceiving either the anger or its source - everybody, but everybody, gets angry.
It is godlike ever to think on something beautiful and on something new.
When I write, I make my memories tangible, and in this way I can get rid of them.
There seems a magic in the very name of Christmas.
It is not your paintings I like, it is your painting.
The poetical impression of any object is that uneasy, exquisite sense of beauty or power that cannot be contained within itself; that is impatient of all limit; that (as flame bends to flame) strives to link itself to some other image of kindred beauty or grandeur; to enshrine itself, as it were, in the highest forms of fancy, and to relieve the aching sense of pleasure by expressing it in the boldest manner.
I dreamt of being a writer once I started to read. I started to write 'Bonjour Tristesse' in bistros around the Sorbonne. I finished it, I sent it to editors. It was accepted.
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