Great Arts Quotes

I have been a quote junkie since I was a teenager. Here are a couple of handfuls of good quotes from my collection. Do you have any favorite arts quotes? If you have a lot of creative friends, you can print these up onto nice paper and give them out to them, or to complete strangers.:)

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


“…art is not just ornamental, an enhancement of life, but a path in itself, a way out of the predictable and conventional, a map to self discovery.”
– Gabrielle Roth
“Art is neither a profession or a hobby. Art is a way of being.” -Frederick Franck

“For creative beings (and we are all creative beings) experience is only half of an experience. We experience life and then digest it by making something out of the experience. Creativity makes life useful to us. It also makes us useful to life.” – Julia Cameron

“A concerto is a cake is a sculpture is a scrapbook is a sonnet is a sweater. There is no difference between the human impulses behind one act of creation and another. The distinctions between “good” and “bad” quality or “high” and “low” art don’t’ really exist. There’s only creation, and the joy that comes with it.” – Sandra Magsamer

“All arts we practice are apprenticeship. The big art is our life.” -M.C. Richard

“Art is the kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument. The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows art to realize its purpose through him.”
-Carl Jung

“Inspiration is our contact with the divine, our ability to access the interconnected and energetic nature of life. Expression is our desire to give form to our experience of the divine.” -Tom Crockett

“The sterility of the bourgeois world will end in suicide or a new form of creative participation.” – Octoavio Paz

“Inspiration cuts through the cultural trance suspending the prescribed goals and expectations of this conditioned cultural mindscape so that alternative realities and solutions may be perceived.” – Philip Rubinov-Jacobson

“By descending down into the depths of the soul, and not primarily by a painful acquisition of many manual skills, the artist attains the power of awakening other souls.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

“We recognized the role of imagination and ritual that is shared between contemporary psychotherapies and all ancient traditions. It was also evident that the arts are the bridging existential phenomena that unite ritual, imagination and dream-world in a way that no other activity can do.” -Paulo Knill

“Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.” -William Plomer

“The world is but a canvas to the imagination.” -Henry David Thorou

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‘This Is It’ & 2012 Review

I went on a movie marathon the other day and watched both movies pretty much back to back. Here are my reviews…

THIS IS IT-
This movie basically showed us Michael Jackson’s swan song- the epic tour he was working on full throttle (tickets already sold out in most cities it would be visiting). I thought incorrectly that rehearsal footage would not be compelling enough to keep me engaged for a 2 hour film. It was fascinating to see the process, the incredible production value, and to get such a close up on the man- who’s voice and moves were as impressive as ever!

On on one hand it could appear like a tragedy that this tour never got to be realized. On the other hand, it is realized and brought to the world through this movie, and may likely more people in that medium than it would as a music tour.

I was very touched by the new rendition of Earth Song and his clear caring message about the Earth.
In his words “That’s why I write these kind of songs, you know, to give some sense of awareness and awakening and hope to people. I LOVE the planet.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn5zIzzXL0g]

Here is a video of his ‘final rehearsal’ of They don’t really care about us.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qE22UOlQts]

It was truly inspiring to see the passion, emotion and message behind it all and how epic of a production he was making.
Go see the movie!

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2012

Going to see a film with the title 2012, I was hoping for some deep messages, considering that there are a lot of complex and profound prophecies and theories about what kind of transformation might happen at that time. That is asking too much of Hollywood. Instead it co-opted and oversimplified the Mayan prophecy and turned it into an unrealistic, way oversensationalized action film about the end of the world.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE ABOUT IT

* It put 2012 on the radar screen of the mass public from a doom gloom fear perspective only
* It underplayed the deaths of millions and overplayed the plight of one family clinging to their lives
* It got cheesy a few times and the unrealistic factor took me out of it when I should be most compelled
* It put all responsibility for our demise on the earth/sun instead of our own actions
* It could of and didn’t really interject any truly redemptive or spiritual messages

WHAT I LIKED ABOUT IT

* There is something very cathartic and profound about seeing such extreme destruction and sort of having the worst case     scenario played out on the screen to experience without experiencing.
* The effects were impressive and well done, and the action was quite exciting.
* There was also some commentary about social values, power politics and compassion.
* It did highlight for me how fragile and precious is the life we have right now and how much we should appreciate it.

What both movies had in common is that I walked out of the theater feeling so GLAD TO BE ALIVE!!!


What helps us ACT and MANIFEST

IDEAS ————————————————————————————>> ACTION

I am surrounded by amazing visionaries who talk about such brilliant ideas all the time. I love inspired visionaries and will be one myself for my whole life. Yet I’m noticing that lately my deeper respect goes more to those who have ACTED on their ideas and have something TANGIBLE to show from them.

I’m gearing up to teach a workshop next week called Get your $h*t Together- a hands on action accelerator for artists. So I’ve been focusing on what gets in the way of us acting on our ideals and ideas and inspirations, and also what helps support us to act. Here is one of the lists.

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THINGS THAT HELP US to ACT and MANIFEST

CLARITY
CLEAR PRIORITIZATION
PLANNER/CALENDAR
LEADERSHIP, CATALYST, COACH, ACCOUNTABILITY
INSPIRATION & EXCITEMENT
ENCOURAGEMENT
EXTERNAL SUPPORT STRUCTURES- like school, workshops, training programs, like minded groups, etc…
TIME MANAGEMENT- Designing a time structure based on true priorities
ORGANIZATION- GOOD SYSTEMS
SELF-DISCIPLINE, DAILY PRACTICE- consistent effort
BLUEPRINTS- STRATEGY- OVERVIEW MAPS- ACTION PLANS
PASSION/FIRE/INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
MONEY & RESOURCES
ACCOUNTABILITY & SUPPORT
COLLABORATION/TEAMWORK/COMMUNITY
SURRENDER & PRAYER & CONNECTION TO SOURCE
MAGIC

What Else?? What helps you??