“If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud.” – Emile Zola

I made the mistake this past weekend of looking up quotes about art. After at least two hours of reading through them and cutting and pasting them for possible blog use I realized… Holy Hannah! That’s a lot of quotes about art! I also realized how inspirational and challenging, funny and baffling they were. It was a metaphysical journey through so many artists’ minds and souls. Frankly, it was a long, strange trip but was also totally awesome. So, as there are so many quotes that were so deserving to be repeated, I decided to take this week of blog posts to do so.

Starting today is part 1 of a “Living Out Loud” series of quotes about art, creativity, artists, etc. I have interspersed some of my favorite works of art in with the quotes because that is a bit of a metaphysical journey for you through my own mind and soul. I hope these words are as transformational and motivational for you as they were for me.

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” – Pablo Picasso

“Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the ‘creative bug’ is just a wee voice telling you, ‘I’d like my crayons back, please.” – Hugh MacLeod

“…and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?” – Vincent Van Gogh

“The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.” – Kurt Vonnegut

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” – Thomas Merton

“Paradoxically though it may seem, it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” – Oscar Wilde

“Life doesn’t imitate art, it imitates bad television.” – Woody Allen

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” – Edgar Degas

“Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious.” – Oscar Wilde

“The first mistake of art is to assume that it’s serious.” – Lester Bangs

“One eye sees, the other feels.” – Paul Klee

“We have art in order not to die of the truth.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

“The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.” – Leonardo da Vinci

 “A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it. A good poem helps to change the shape of the universe, helps to extend everyone’s knowledge of himself and the world around him.” – Dylan Thomas

“The role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them.” – Anton Chekhov

“If art doesn’t make us better, then what on earth is it for?” – Alice Walker

“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” -Aristotle

“He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.” – Francis of Assisi