Saturday, September 19, 2009

"When we are writing, or painting, or composing, we are, during the time of creativity, freed from normal restrictions, and are opened to a wider world, where colors are brighter, sounds clearer, and people more wondrously complex than we normally realize."   --Madeleine L'Engle

I like this quotation because it points to the fact that art doesn't have to be totally realistic - in fact, perhaps shouldn't be realistic when the world can be expressed in so many exciting ways.  And I can also relate to that feeling of magical clarity and complexity coming at you at the same time "during the time of creativity" ...

1 comment:

Excaliborn7 said...

I think this also relates to the Picasso quote above. Art frequently serves another set of rules than our so called sense of "reality." One of my favorite artists, Orlan, said that "art makes life more interesting than art." I've always liked that. There's an effect that comes out of an artist's ability to exaggerate and amplify the world which, once finished-hopefully-effects the world it came from. Realness and reality, of course, are always hard to pinpoint. Especially nowadays.

BTW, Orlan has had a very illustrious career as a contemporary artist; she is principally known for the numerous plastic surgeries she's had on her own face in an attempt to most nearly resemble an art historical ideal of beauty - a combo or the mona lisa and venus de milo.