Self-portrait with “Some Things We Regret”
* an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
A chastening day yesterday. Color rose up and towered over me and advanced toward me. A tsunami – only that terrifying Japanese word for tidal wave will do – of color, and I was swept off my feet. In a frenzy, I tried to catch it. Sheet after sheet of Arches paper spread around the studio, covering all the surfaces of all my tables and finally the floor. I tried to keep one step ahead all morning. In the afternoon, I managed to get a toehold, and once again recognized my limitation: that vestige of all that a human being could know that is what I do know. I see this delicate nerve of myself as unimpressive. The fact is that is all I have. The richness of years, contained like wine in the goatskin of my body, meets my hand narrowly.
Anne Truitt in Turn: The Journal of an Artist
Comments are welcome!
Filed under: An Artist's Life, Art in general, Black Paintings, Creative Process, Inspiration, New York, NY, Pastel Painting, Pearls from Artists, Photography, Quotes, Studio, Working methods Tagged: "Turn: The Journal of an Artist", advanced, afternoon, again, ahead, Anne Truitt, Arches, around, body, catch, chastening, color, contained, covering, day, delicate, fact, feet, finally, floor, frenzy, goatskin, hand, human being, Japanese, know, limitation, managed, meets, morning, myself, narrowly, nerve, paper, recognized, richness, rose, self portrait, sheet, Some Things We Regret", spread, Studio, surfaces, swept, tables, terrifying, tidal wave, toehold, toward, towered, tried, tsunami, unimpressive, vestige, wine, word, years, yesterday
