Morris Graves Quotes

A painter may be looking at the world in a way which is very different from everyone else. If he's a craftsman, he can get other people to see the world through his eyes, and so he enlarges our vision, perception, and there's great value in that.

Painting, for me, is a dynamic balance and wholeness of life; it is mysterious and transcending, yet solid and real.

For me, drawing is a way of navigating the imagination, and it remains the fundamental vehicle of my practice. Drawing allows me to be at my most inventive.

For 'Picture This,' I wanted it to be a drawing book that didn't have any instructions about drawing, beyond the real simple stuff you'd find like in a Bazooka bubblegum wrapper, or in 'Highlights' magazine. I just wanted it to be feelings about looking and seeing and pictures.

Through art, you create your own world.

Painting is the passage from the chaos of the emotions to the order of the possible.

When I make a picture, I make love.

Painting is a nail to which I fasten my ideas.

I will preach with my brush.

Art is something that opens up and enhances your emotions and that's what I like to think I'm doing.

I have to say that I reject somewhat the distinction between something called art and something called public art. I think all art demands and desires to be seen.

I don't know what a painting is; who knows what sets off even the desire to paint? It might be things, thoughts, a memory, sensations, which have nothing to do directly with painting itself. They can come from anything and anywhere.

What is art? Nature concentrated.

Making art is different for everyone.

I make pictures and someone comes in and calls it art.

Art is an investigation.

Art is about the messy and marvelous business of coming to your senses - and also, to the senses of the world.

I think that has been a benefit to me because I think most people understand quilts and not a lot of people understand paintings. But yet they're looking at one.

I like to write about painting because I think visually. I see my writing as blocks of color before it forms itself. I think I also care about painting because I'm not musical. Painting to me is not a metaphor for writing, but something people do that can never be reduced to words.

Science is spectral analysis. Art is light synthesis.

The more I paint the more I like everything.

Painting keeps me occupied in those moments when travel can be aimless and even disorienting. Mainly it is a way to register at least some of the new impressions of a foreign place, when its thrilling barrage can sometimes overwhelm you.

What is art but a way of seeing?

An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world.

Drawing is a way of coming upon the connection between things, just like metaphor in poetry reconnects what has become separated.