To be an artist you have to give up everything, including the desire to be a good artist.
Jasper JohnsRead
Sometimes I see it and then paint it. Other times I paint it and then see it. Both are impure situations, and I prefer neither.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the complex relationship between perception and creation in the artistic process.
Jasper Johns expresses a nuanced view of the artistic experience, highlighting the interplay between seeing and creating art. He acknowledges that sometimes an artist may perceive an image before painting it, while at other times, the act of painting leads to a new perception. Both scenarios, according to Johns, are imperfect as they blur the lines between initial inspiration and execution.
Themes
ArtCreativityPerceptionProcessPainting
In practice
Example use cases
In an art class, when discussing the nature of artistic inspiration.
More from Jasper Johns
All quotes βThe only logical thing I can think of is that I knew there were such things as artists, and I knew there were none where I lived. So I knew that to be an artist you had to be somewhere else. And I very much wanted to be somewhere else.
Jasper JohnsRead
This image of wanting to be an artist - that I would in some way become an artist -was very strong. I knew for a long, long time that that's what I would be. But nothing I ever did seemed to bring me any nearer to the condition of being an artist. And I didn't know how to do it.
Jasper JohnsRead
One wants one's work to be the world, but of course it's never the world. The work is in the world; it never contains the whole thing.
Jasper JohnsRead
Sometime during the mid-50s I said, 'I am an artist.' Before that, for many years, I had said, 'I'm going to be an artist.' Then I went through a change of mind and a change of heart. What made 'going to be an artist' into 'being an artist', was, in part, a spiritual change.
Jasper JohnsRead
Make something, a kind of object, which as it changes or falls apart (dies as it were) or increases in its parts (grows as it were) offers no clue as to what its state or form or nature was at any previous time. Physical and Metaphysical. Obstinacy. Could this be a useful object?
Jasper JohnsRead
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