Art is the province of every human being

Doing things, anything, well

Becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature

Interesting to other people

Disturbs, upsets, enlightens, opens ways for a better understanding

The world would stagnate without him, and the world would be beautiful with him; interesting to himself, interesting to others

He can work in any medium. Find the gain in the work itself, not outside it

Where there is the art spirit there will be precious works to fill museums. There will be happiness that is in the making. Art tends towards balance, order, judgement of relative values

The work of the art student is no light matter. Few have the courage and stamina to see it through. You have to make up your mind to be alone in many ways

Alone one gets acquainted with himself, grows up and on, not stopping with the crowd. It costs to do this

Cherish your own emotions and never undervalue them

We are not here to do what has already been done

Trying to improve my own environment

Know what the old masters did. Know how they composed their pictures, but do not fall into the conventions they established. These conventions were right for them, and they are wonderful. They made their language. You make yours. They can help you. All the past can help you

An art student must be a master from the beginning. By being now master of such as he has there is promise that he will be master in the future

A work of art which inspires us comes from no quibbling or uncertain man. It is the manifest of a very positive nature in great enjoyment, and at the very moment the work was done

The brush stroke at the moment of contact carries inevitably the exact state of being of the artist at that exact moment into the work

For an artist to be interesting to us he must have been interesting to himself. He must have been capable of intense feeling, and capable of profound contemplation

He who has contemplated has met with himself, is in a state to see into the realities beyond the surface of his subject. Nature reveals to him whether he wills it or not each brush stroke is an exact record of such as he was at the exact moment the stroke was made

Like any hunter he hits or misses. He is looking for what he loves, he tries to capture it. It's found anywhere, everywhere. The hunter is learning to see and to understand—to enjoy

Don't worry about the rejections. Everyone that's good has gone through it. Don't let it matter if your works are not 'accepted' at once. The better or more personal you are the less likely they are of acceptance. Just remember that the object of painting pictures is not simply to get them in exhibitions. You are painting for yourself, not just the jury

Do some great work, Son!

Every student should put down in some form or other this findings. All any man can hope to do is to add his fragment to the whole. No man can be final, but he can record his progress, and whatever he records is so much done in the thrashing out of the whole thing. What he leaves is so much for others to use as stones to step on or stones to avoid

The student is not an isolated force. He takes and he gives. He benefits by taking and he benefits by giving

An interest in a subject is the subject; something you want to say definitely about the subject; this is the first condition of a portrait

The artist starts with an opinion

Nature is there before you. A particular line has been taken through nature

Start with a deep impression, the best, the most interesting, the deepest you can have of the model; to preserve this vision throughout the work; to see nothing else; to admit of no digression from it; choosing only from the model the signs of it; will lead to an organic work. Every element in the picture will be constructive, constructive of an idea, expressive of an emotion. Every factor in the painting will have beauty because in its place in the organization it is doing its living part

It is only through a sense of the right relation of things that freedom can be obtained

You have choice of differing modes of study, and it is up to you to decide well which will be the most profitable, which will carry you further

Every mode has its virtues and its vices, but the student who is a student and attending to his own case will in the mode just described crowd into a week a lot of experience in commencing a work, and he will come to a very great knowledge of his understanding and his possible visions of the subject

The value of repeated studies of beginnings of a painting cannot be over-estimated

Those who cannot begin do not finish

For all who continue to work on the same canvas let me suggest that your struggle throughout the week should be to perfect the beginning of your painting

Insist then, on the beauty of form and color to be obtained from the composition of the largest masses, the four or five large masses which cover your canvas. Let these above all things have fine shapes, have fine colors. Let them be as meaningful of your subject as they possibly can be. It is wonderful how much real finish can be obtained through them

Most students and most painters in fact rush over this; they are in a hurry to get on to other matters, minor matters

The mass of the face is the most important and should be considered as principal to the other masses

The mass of the head should be considered as principal to any feature of the head. The beauty of the larger mass is primary to and is essential to the lesser mass

Paint over and over, scrape and re-commence in your effort to find out and establish the beauty of color and design possible in the larger masses

Permit no hurrying on to the lesser masses before all has been done that is possible with the larger masses

Determine to get in these larger masses all that is possible of completion

The greatest beauty can be expressed through these masses, that the distinction of the whole canvas depends on them

When later you come to the painting of the features of the face, consider well the feature's part in relation to the idea you have to express

No feature should be started until you have fully comprehended its character and have established in your mind the manner of its full accomplishment. To stop in the process of drawing the lines of a feature to inquire 'what next' is surely to leave a record of disconnection

No feature should be drawn except in its relation to the others

The hair is to be used as a great drawing medium. It is to be rendered according to its nature, but it is not to be copied. Think well on this; it is very important

The eyebrow must not be drawn hesitatingly. It must be conceived as a whole; your conception, your brush, the quantity of paint in right fluidity must be all ready before you touch the canvas

There is a time and place for all things, the difficulty is to use them only in their proper time and places

This kind of thought is drawing, the hand must obey the spirit. With motive, you will become clairvoyant of means, will seize and command them. Without motive you will wabble about

Your appreciation of him has depended on your perception of these things in their significance

Your work will be the statement of what have been your emotions, you will use these specialized forms, colors and gestures to make your statement. Plainly you are to develop as a seerr, as an appreciator as well as a craftsman. You are to give the craftsman in you a motive, else he cannot develop

Gesture expresses through form and color the states of life

Work with great speed. Have your energies alert, up and active. Finish as quickly as you can. There is no virtue in delaying. Get the greatest possibility of expression in the larger masses first. Then the features in their greatest simplicity in concordance with and dependent on the mass. Do it all in one sitting if you can. In one minute if you can. There is no virtue in delaying. Do not pass from the work on mass to features until all that can be said with the larger forms has been said—no matter how long it may take, no matter if accomplishment of the picture may be delayed from one to many days. Hold to this principle that the greatest drawing, the greatest expression, the greatest completion, the sense of all contained, lies in what can be done through the larger masses and the larger gestures

When we know the relative value of things we can do anything with them. We can build with them without destroying them. Under such conditions they are enhanced by coming into contact with each other

The study of art is the study of the relative value of things. The factors of a work of art cannot be used constructively until their relative values are known

Work should be done from memory

The picture must not become a patchwork of parts of various moods. The original mood must be held to

Refers to the model, but he does not follow the new relations which differing moods establish

All good work is done from memory whether the model is still present or not

No vacillating or uncertain interest can produce a unity

Thirty minutes of high-pitch mentality and spirit is worth more than a whole week below par

A thing that has not been begun cannot be finished

The development of an ability to work from memory, to select factors, to take things of certain constructive values and build twith them a special thing, your unique vision of nature, the thing you caught in an instant look of a face or the formations of a moment in the sky, will make it possible to state not only that face, that landscape, but make your statement of them as they were when they were most beautiful too you

You will make an organization in paint on canvas; not a reproduction, but an organization, subject to the natural laws of paint and canvas, which will have an order in it kin to that order which has so impressed you in nature—in the look of a face, in the look of a landscape

There are those who have found the sign and through their works we can to some degree follow, as we do at times when hearing music or in association with the works of the masters of other arts

Everyone is some measure has these moments of clearer understanding, and it is equally important for all to hold and fix them

It is really not important whether one's vision is as great as that of another. It is a personal question as to whether one shall lie in and deal with his greatest moments of happiness

The development of the power of seeing and the power to retain in the memory that which is essential and to make record and thus test out how true the seeing and the memory have been is the way to happiness

You do not go into details, but you devote yourself to making the finest design you can possibly make with the seven named shapes

You as students should devote yourselves to the power of simple expressions, to do all that can be done and learn how much can be said with the simpler and more fundamental terms

All things change according to the state we are in. Nothing is fixed

From my point of view the simpler a background is the better figure in front of it will be, and also I will add, the better the figure is the less the observer will need entertainment in the background

Nothing is right until all is done and a total unity has been accomplished

It is important to stress attention to the background, for it is a most comment habit to neglect

Every instance was evoked by the spirit of the things that she wished to express

There are moments in our lives, there are moments in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual

Few are capable of holding themselves in the state of listening to their own song

There are times to hold a note and there are times to change it

The value of a picture rests in its constructive beauty. Its story, the fact that it is about a man, a boy, a landscape, an event which transpires, is merely incidental to its creation. The real motive, the real thing attained is the revelation of what you can perceive beyond the fact

His case is his special interest—his special vision. He does not repeat nature

What enters your vision is only the sequences of this established interest. When gamblers play in luck, when they continue to win, seem to have a knowledge of how the card will turn, they may be said to have fallen in with one of the courses nature takes

Every movement of nature is orderly, one thing the outcome of another, a matter of constructive, growing force. We live our lives in tune with nature when we are happy, and all our misery is the result of our effort to dictate against nature. In moments of great happiness we see, to be with the universe; when all is wrong we seem to be alone, disjointed. Things are going on without us

The art student of these days is a pioneer. He lives in a decidedly colorless, materialistic age. The human family has not yet come out of the woods. We were more barbarian, we are still barbarians. Sometimes in the past we shot ahead, in certain ways, ahead of where we are now. We gave flashes of what is possible in man. We have yet as a body to come up to the art of living. The art student of today must pioneer beyond the mere matters of fact

A good picture is a well-built structure

Great artists of the future will use fewer words, copy fewer things, essays will be shorter in words and longer in meaning. There will be a battle against obscurity

There will be fewer things said and done, but each thing will be fuller and will receive fuller consideration. Now we waste. There is too much 'Art,' too much 'decoration,' tooo many things are made, too many amusements wasted. Not enough is fully considered

We must paint only what is important to us, must not respond to outside demands. They do not know what they want, or what we have to give

Every emotion has its expression throughout the body

All these, the canvas, paints, brushes, hands and brains are but tools to be guided by the soul of man. The brain can prove to be a wonderful tool, but of course it works poorly when it has not the habit of usage

The whole fact is that art and science are so close akin that they might very well be lumped together. They are certainly necessary to each other and the delights of either pursuit should satisfy any man

The mind is a tool, it is either clogged, bound, rusty, or it is a clear way to and from the soul. An artist should not be afraid of his tools. He should not be afraid to know

We do deal in an unconscious way with another dimension than the well-known three

Deep in us there is always a grasp of proportions which exist over and through the obvious three, and it is by this power of super-proportioning that we reach the inner meaning of things

The absolute need for solidity must be felt before solidity can be attained

If you want to know how to do a thing you must first have a complete desire to do that thing. Then go to kindred spirits—others who have wanted to do that thing—and study their ways and means, learn from their successes and failures and add your quota. You may acquire from the experience of the race. With this technical knowledge you may go forward, expressing through the play of forms the music that is in you and which is very personal to you. Receipts are for slaves

Tools made for mechanics

They are so beautiful, so simple and plain and straight to their meaning. There is no 'Art' about them, they have not been made beautiful, they are beautiful

Someone has defined a work of art as a 'thing beautifully done.' I like it better if we cut away the adverb and preserve the word 'done,' and let it stand alone in its fullest meaning. Things are not done beautifully. The beauty is an integral part of their being done

A tree growing out of the ground is as wonderful today as it ever was. It does not need to adopt new and startling methods

It is a wise student who has a perfectly clean, well-kept palette. Always clean. To make continual essays with color—thousands of little notes, color combinations, juxtapositions of all the possible intensities of a well-selected spectrum palette

The effect of brilliancy is to be obtained principally from the oppositions of cool colors from warm colors, and the oppositions of grave colors with bright colors. If all the colors are bright there is no brightness

Hold on to the few simple larger masses of your composition, and value as most important the beauty and design of these larger masses, or forms, or movements. Do not let beauty in the subdivisions destroy the beauty or the power of the major divisions

Whatever you feel or think, your exact state at the exact moment of your brush touching the canvas is in some way registered in that stroke. If there is interesting or reasonable sequence in your thoughts and feelings, if there is order in your progressive states of being as the paint is applied, this will show, and nothing in the world can help it from showing

Do not be interested in light for light's sake or in color for color's sake, but in each as a medium of expression

If you have not read, and studied, for here again you must dig, get them by all means, for you must want to get the wisdom and the practical advice they contain, and what they suggest

Understand that in no work will you find the final word, nor will you find a receipt that will just fit you. The fun of living is that we have to make ourselves, after all

To live with them. Great students agree and disagree. They stir the waters

Many things that come into the world are not looked into. Don't run with crowds

Personal experimentation is revealing, and, once you get into it, immensely engagiing

Remember that pigment is one thing and light is another. Combinations of light and combinations of pigments produce differing results

Your work is not, and cannot be, a reproduction. Nature has its laws. Your pigments and your flat canvas have other laws. You must work within the laws of your material

For our time other choices may be necessary, for we are different. We may be better or worse in being different, but so we are, and our methods must be suited to our needs

It seems to me that the present day man, with all his reverence for the old master, is interested in seizing other qualities, far more fleeting. He must be cool and he must calculate, but his work must be quick

All his science and all his powers of invention must be brought into practice to capture the vision of an illusive moment

The man who has honesty, integrity, the love of inquiry, the desire to see beyond, is ready to appreciate good art

Art is the inevitable consequence of growth. The work of art is a result; is the output of a progress in development and stands as a record and marks the degree of development. It is not an end in itself, but the work indicates the course taken and the progress made

Art appears in many forms. To some degree every human being is an artist, dependent on the quality of his growth. Art need not be intended. It comes inevitably as the tree from the root, the branch from the trunk, the blossom from the twig. Occcupied wholly with the fulfillment of their own existence

Because it is engaged in the full play of its own existence, because it is full in its own growth, its fruit is inevitable

The mere brush stroke itself must speak. It counts whether you will or not. It is meaningful or it is empty

It is wonderful how much steadiness can be commanded by will, by intense desire

Use anything when you have to

Don't use them except when you have to

If possible, transmit through your free body and hand

Whatever feeling, whatever state you have at the time of the stroke will register in the stroke

Get the full swing of your body into the stroke

Painting should be done from the floor up, not from the seat of a comfortable chair

Great results are attained by the pressure, force or delicacy with which the stroke is made

Too many brushes, or too many sorts of brushes cause confusion

A thing is beautiful when it is strong in its kind

The good things grow better. There is always a new surprise each time you see them

The man who has something very definite to say and tries to force the medium to say it will learn how to draw

Don't worry about your originality. You could not get rid of it even if you wanted to. It will stick to you and show you up for better or worse in spite of all you or anyone else can do

No knowledge is so easily found as when it is needed

All is as beautiful as we think it

Butterflies are beautiful

He should be careful of the influence of those with whom he consorts, and he runs a great risk in becoming a member of a large society, for large bodies tend toward the leveling of individuality to a common consent, the forming and the adherence to a creed. And a member must be ever in unnecessary broil or pretend agreement which he cannot permit himself to do, for it is his principle as an art student too have and to defend his personal impressions. Art is 'nature as seen through a temperament'

The reproduction of things is but the idle industry of one who does not value his sensations, and who was done with his imaginings when he passed out of childhood and consented that the prancing horse he had bestrode in those happy days had only been a broken brooomstick

One of the great difficulties of an art student is to decide between his own natural impressions and what he thinks should be his impressions

Every individual should study his own individuality to the end of knowing his tastes. Should cultivate the pleasures so discovered and find the most direct means of expressing those pleasures to others, thereby enjoying them over again

It is harder to see than it is to express

The whole value of art rests in the artist's ability to see well into what is before him

A genius is one who can see

He must not only bend technique will, but he must invent technique that will especially fit his need. He is the blazer of the road for what he has to bring

To study technique means to make it, to invent it. Too take the raw material each time anew and twist it into shape. It must be made to serve a specific purpose. The same technique must never be used again. Each time it must be made new and fresh

There is a great pleasure in the effort to invent the exact thing which is needed

The whole fun of the thing is in seeing and inventing, trying to refute a common idea that education is a case of collecting and storing, instead of making

The ignorant are to be found as much among the educated as among the uneducated

It is this sense of the persistent life force back of things which makes the eye see and the hand move in ways that result in true masterpieces. Techniques are thus created as a need

It is necessary to work very continuously and valiantly, and never apologetically. Be ever on the job so that we may find ourselves there, brush in hand, when the great moment does arrive

All the past up to a moment ago is your legacy

Don't belong to any school. Don't tie up to any technique

All outward success, when it has value, is but the inevitable result of an inward success of full living, full play and enjoyment of one's faculties

A man cannot be honest unless he is wise. Too be honest is to be just and to be just is to realize the relative value of things

The very essential quality of all really great men is their intense humanity, and they all have an unusual power of thinking

There is another and deeper change in progress. It is of long, steady persistent growth, very little affected and not at all disturbed by surface conditions

The great masters in all the arts have been whole men. They have had marvelous fullness in all human directions, have been intensely humane in themselves and in their interests. And if they seem to select, it is because they have so much to select from

Make something that will be wholly satisfying to you. Not a picture to be more finished in the common sense, but one to be finished in this other sense, which will please you

It will take courage and it will take common sense. Don't begin to paint before you have quite satisfied yourself as to the placement of everything. You can make numerous little drawings, or panel sketches of the various parts

Make up your mind what you want to put down and don't let anything prevent you from putting down just that

You have a lot of talent, a real flair for color, and you should be willing to work to a conclusion, to fight things out

You are not to give up the quick sketch. That work is to go on always

The finish I ask for is the fuller carrying out of the spirit and the fulfillment of the organization that is hinted at in the sketch

To apprehend beauty is to work for it. It is a mighty and an entrancing effort, and the enjoyment of a picture is not only in the pleasure it inspires, but in the comprehension of the new order of construction used in its making

Get up and walk back and judge your drawing

When the motives of artists are profound, when they are at their work as a result of deep consideration, when they believe in the importance of what they are doing, their work creates a stir in the world

The true character of the student is one of great mental and spiritual activity. He arrives at conclusions and he searches too express his findings

Before them his new angle on life. He creates a disturbance, wins attention from those who have in them his kind of blood—the student blood. These are stirred into activity. Camps are established. Discussion runs high. There is life in the air

When a driving is tiresome it may be because the motive is not worth the effort

Be willing to paint a picture that does not look like a picture

Keep your old work. You did it. There are virtues and there are faults in it for you to study. You can learn more from yourself than you can from anyone else

If you are working from day to day on a drawing, take it home. Put it where you can see it well

No one can get anywhere without contemplation. Busy people who do not make contemplation part of their business do not doo much for all their effort

Study the drawing out. When you take it back before the model you will have a state of mind far in advance of the state of the drawing

The model on the stand is a piece of history

Life and art cannot be disassociated

I would like to be in many activities. I think that anyone who has had the pleasures of study and work for years may be full of regret because he cannot practice in all the arts

Painting is a great mystery. No one has ever learned quite how to paint. No one has ever learned quite how to see

Life is not repetition

The American who is useful as an artist is one who studies his own life and records his experiences; in this way he gives evidence. If a man has something to say he will find a way of saying it

The undercurrent and motive of all art is an individual man's idea. It is absolutely necessary for him to give it out

The true artist regards his work as a means of talking with men

Men have to give just as the bird has to sing. The artist is teaching the world the idea of life. The man who believes that money is the thing is cheating himself

I think the heart should be master and the mind should be the tool and servant of the heart. We give too much attention to laws and not enough to principles. The man who wants to produce art must have the emotional side first, and this must be reinforced by the practical

Have an excellent mind, command and use as a tool for the expression of his emotions

First there must be the man, then the technique

All education must be self-education

The school is a thing of the period. It has the faults and the virtues of the period. It either uses the student for its own success or the self-educating student uses it for his success

It is up to the student whether he becomes a school-made man or whether he uses the school as a place of experience where there are both good and bad advices, where there are strengths and weaknesses, where there are facilities, and much information to be had from the instructors, and much to be gained by association with the other students

Just what he should know, just how he should proceed can only be guessed at

A school should be an offering of opportunity, not a direction, and the student should know that the school will be good for him only to the degree that he makes it good

Different men must learn different things. Each man must put himself as far as possible in the way of knowing what is known and he must make his choices. Everything back of him is his heritage to use or too leave

The man who goes into a school to educate himself and not to be educated will get somewhere

He should not enter the school with any preconceived idea of his destiny. In fact he should be open and free. His aim should be to search deeply and work hard and let the outcome be what it may

The best art in the world has ever had is but the impress left by men who have thought less of making great art than of living full and completely with all their faculties in the enjoyment of full play

The greatness of art depends absolutely on the greatness of the artist's individuality and on the same source depends the power to acquire a technique sufficient for expression

When he did goo for relaxation he put his wit, his humor, his vitality and all himself into it

Free myself from any idea that what I produce must be art or must respond in any way to any standard

It must be what it is and must have been made because it was a great pleasure to make it

More important than the lifelong study of technique is the lifelong self-education

Technique can only be used properly by those who have definite purpose in what they do, and it is only they who invent technique

You can do anything you want to do. What is rare is actual wanting to do a specific thing: wanting it so much that you are practically blind to all other things, that nothing else will satisfy you. When you, body and soul, wish to make a certain expression and cannot be distracted from this one desire, then you will be able to make a great use of whatever technical knowledge you have. You will have clairvoyance, you will see the uses of the technique you already have, and you will invent mroe

Educating yourself is getting acquainted with yourself

Find out what you really like if you can. Find out what is really important to you. Then sing your song. You will have something to sing about and your whole heart will be in the singing

When a man is full up with what he is talking about he handles such language as he has with a mastery unusual to him, and it is at such times that he learns language

Don't make your picture like a picture, make it like nature

I believe in the study of technique. One should know as far as possible all the possibilities of a medium

I am interested in simple expression

Paint must be so simply managed that it will carry understanding past the material fact

Painting should never look as if it were done with difficulty, however difficult it may actually have been

The finder the motive, the more the artist sees significance in what he looks at, the more he must be precise in the choice of his terms

Before a man tries to express anything to the world he must recognize in himself an individual, a new one, very distinct from others

It is not so much the actual place or the immediate environment; it is personal greatness and personal freedom which demands a final right art expression. A man must be master of himself and master of his word to achieve the full realization of himself as an artist

A man should not care whether the thing he wishes to express is art or not, whether it is a picture or not, he should only care that it is a statement of what is worthy to put into permanent expression

There is absolutely no such thing as color for color's sake. Colors are beautiful when they are significant. Lines are beautiful when they are significant

To award prizes is to attempt to control the course of another man's work. It is a bid to have him do what you will approve. It affects not only the one who wins the award, but all those who in any measure strive for it. It is an effort to stop evolution, to hold things back to the plane of your judgment. It is a check on a great adventure of human life

If you want to be useful, if you want to be an encouragement to the deserving young artist, don't try to pick him or judge him, but become interested in his effort with keen willingness to accept the surprises of its outcome

Let the work they do get its honor in being what it is

Artists are not in competition with each other

It takes with, and interest and energy to be happy. The pursuit of happiness is a great activity. One must be open and alive. It is the greatest feat man has to accomplish, and spirits must flow. There must be courage. There are no easy ruts to get into which lead to happiness. A man must become interesting to himself and must become actually expressive before he can be happy

Everywhere I see at times this beautiful expression of the dignity of life, to which I respond with a wish to preserve this beauty of humanity for my friends too enjoy

Everything that is beautiful is orderly, and there can be no order unless things are in their right relation to each other

It is not too much to say that art is the noting of the existence of order throughout the world, and soo, order stirs imagination and inspires one to reproduce this beautiful relationship existing in the universe, as best one can

It is disorder in the mind of man that produces chaos of the kind that brings about such a war as we are today overwhelmed with

The time must come when the same freedom is allowed the individual; each in his own way must develop according to nature's purpose, the body must be but the channel for the expresson of purpose, interest, emotion, labor. Everywhere freedom must be the sign of reason

Our minds and souls are so overlaid with fear, with artificiality, that often we do not even recognize beauty. It is this fear, this lack of direct vision of truth that brings about all the disaster the world holds, and how little opportunity we give any people for casting off fear, for living simply and naturally. When they do, first of all we fear them, then we condemn them. It is only if they are great enough to outlive our condemnation that we accept them

Every great artist is a man who has freed himself from his family, his nation, his race

Each genius differs only from the mass in that he has found freedom from his greatness; the greatness is everywhere, in every man, in every child. Our civilization is busy smothering greatness. We destroy what we love and reverence what we destroy. The genius who is great enough to cut through our restraint wins our applause yet if we have our own way we restrain him

One should study ways and means all the while to express one's ideas of life more clearly

To hold the spirit of greatness is in my mind what the world was created for. The human body is beautiful as this spirit shines through, and art is great as it translates and embodies this spirit

Every nation in the world, in spite of itself, produces the occasional individual that does express in some sense this beauty, with enough freedom for natural growth. It is this element in people which is the essence of life, which springs out away from the institution, which is the reformation upon which the institution is founded, which laughs at all boundaries and which in every generation is the beginning, the birth of new greatness, which holds in solution all genius, all true progress, all significant beauty

Much can be done with little

There are two classes of human beings. One has ideas, which it believes in fully, perhaps, but modifies to bring about 'success.' The other class has ideas which it believes in and must carry out absolutely; success or no success. The first class has a tremendous majority, and they are all slaves. The second class are the only free people in the world. Some are kept under the grind of poverty. Some are sent to jail, but they are still the only free class

I am not interested in art as a means of making a living, but I am interested in art as a means of living a life

Art is certainly not a pursuit for anyone who wants to make money. There are ever so many better ways

The object of painting a picture is not to make a picture. The picture, if a picture results, is a by-product and may be useful, valuable, interesting as a sign of what has past. The object, which is back of every true work of art, is the attainment of a state of being, a state of high functioning, a more than ordinary moment of existence. In such moments activity is inevitable, and whether this activity is with brush, pen, chisel, or tongue, its result is but a by-product of the state, a trace, the footprint of the state

They are likewise interesting to others because they are to some extent readable and reveal the possibilities of greater existence

The picture is a by-product of such states as it is in the nature of man to desire

The need of activity, or expression, which the state evokes in most individuals is the cause of technical research. We make our discoveries of technique while in the state because then we are clear sighted. But at all times we are engaged in research. Our object is to be ready

His object was not to make Art. His object was to live. He did not fear what he touched as a result of the activity he created by his state. In having his state and with free rein to the activity engendered by it, the inevitable happened—the by-product—art—the trace of his being

Forget about the exhibitions and the juries. Think less of the success of the by-product and you will have more success with it. Keep living. And that means keep on painting

It is not easy to know what you like

Paint like a fiend when the idea possesses you

The beauty of a work of art is in the work itself

Use the ability you already have, and use it, and use it, and make it develop itself

Many receive a criticism and think it is fine; think they got their money's worth; think well of the teach for it, and then go on with their work just the same as before. That is the reason much of the wisdom of Plato is still locked up in the pages of Plato

Make compositions. Use the knowledge you acquire in the life class at once

Like to do your work as much as a dog likes too gnaw a bone and go at it with equal interest and exclusion of everything else

The easiest thing is the hardest. It is harder to be simple than it is to be complex

We read a book, a novel, any book, we are interested in it to the degree we find in it answers to our questions

When the teacher is continually author both of the question and its answer, it is not as likely the answer will sink deep and get into service, as it will if the question is asked by the child

A complete statement of just what you feel most important to say about the subject

A work of art is not a copy of things. It is inspired by nature but must not be a copying of the surface

You have to make your statement of what is essential to you

Thee things are parts of a whole. Each thing benefits the whole, its neighbor, all its neighbors, and is receiving benefit from all of them. This is the principle of order. Each thing is more than itself alone

Intense comprehension and intense desire to express one whole thing is necessary. Without a positive purpose, means effect only an exercise in means

You can't know too much about composition. That is; the areas you have to fill, their possibilities, but you must, above all, preserve your intense interest in life. You must have the will to say a very definite thing. Then, the more you know your means the better

Your only hope of satisfying others is in satisfying yourself

Great works of art should look as though they were made in joy

Your education must be self-education. Self-education is an effort to free one's course so that a full growth may be attained

All the knowledge in the world to which you have access is yours to use

Don't bother about your originality, set yourself just as free as you can and your originality will take care of you

'Educate yourself, do not let me educate you—use me, do not be used by me.'

Watch your work mighty well and see that it is the voice that comes from within you that speaks in your work—not ann expected or controlled voice, not an outside educated voice

The great thing is what happens between colors

Those who live in full play of their faculties become master economists, they understand the relative value of things. Freedom can only be obtaineed through an understanding of basic order. Basic order is underlying all life. It is not to be found in the institutions men have made. Those who have lived and grown at least to some degree in the spirit of freedom are our creative artists. They have a wonderful time. They keep the world going. They must leave their trce in some way, paint, stone, macchinery, whatever. The importance of what they do is greater than anyone estimates at the time. In fact in a commercial world there are thousands of lives wasted doing things not worth doing. Human spirit is sacrificed. More and more things are produced without a will in the creation, and are consumed or 'used' without a will in the consumption or the using

Go to your work with a consciousness that it is more important than any other thing you might do

Go to your work because it is the most important living to you. Make great things—as great as you are. Work always as if you were a master, expect from yourself a masterpiece

Masters are very faulty, they haven't learned everything and they know it

You can learn much from others but more from yourself

Don't be ashamed to keep your bad stuff. After all you did it. It is your history and worth studying

No work of art is really ever finished. They only stop at good places

There is weakness in pretending to know more than you know or in stating less than you know

Technique must be solid, positive, but eelastic, must not fall into formula, must adapt itself to the idea. And for each new idea there must be new invention special to the expression of that idea and no other. And the idea must be valuable, worth te effort of expression, must come of the artist's understanding of life and be a thing he greatly desires to say

Consider the whole space of your canvas as the field of your expression. Your ideas must not wander, anywhere, within the confines of the canvas, but they must fill it completely

Courage to go on developing this ability to see in nature the thing which charms you, and to express just that as fully and completely as you can. Just that. Nothing else. Not to do as any other artist does. Nor to be afraid that you may do as any other artist does

Do not require of your work the finish that anyone may demand of you, but insist on the finish which you demand

The most beautiful art is the art which is freest from the demands of convention, which has a law to itself, which as a technique is a creation of a special need

You need but to command your medium and your sense and pleasure in color will do the rest. With an actual command of the medium, which you must work for, you will make beautiful things

There is a latent possibility of specific and penetrating vision in each individual. The thing is to develop this possibility

The motive and the means must be so brought together, so enacted at the same time, that their action is as one

It will not do to have your fine thought yesterday, and paint your picture today

If you are to make great art it will be because you have become a deep thinker

Today man stands in his own way. He puts a criterion in the way of his own revelation and development. He would be better than he is and because man judges poorly he fails to become as good as he might be. He should take his restraining hands off himself, should defy fashion and let himself be. The only men who are interesting to themselves and to others are those who have been willing to meet themselves squarely. The works of the masters are what they are because they are evidences from men who dared to be like themselves. They were interesting to themselves, and now they are interesting to us

Keeping one's faculties in full exercise is the secret of good health and longevity

I think your only salvation is in finding yourself, and you will never find yourself unless you quit preconceiving what you will be when you have found yourself. What are your greatest, deepest, and all-possessing interests?

You need to free yourself from your own preconceived ideas about yourself

If you can at least to a degree free yourself, take your head off your heart and give the latter a chance, something may come of it. The results will not be what you expect, but they will be like you and will be the best that can come from you. There will be a lot more pleasure in the doing

There are many kinds of study. Those whose study is of the real and rare kind get the habit. They can't throw it off. It's too good. They go on studying all their lives, and they have wonderful lives

There is little use in painting—in living in fact—unless you let yourself grow your natural course

Nobody wanted Walt Whitman, but Walt Whitman wanted himself, and it is well for us that he did

The goal is not making art. It is living a life. Those who live their lives will leave the stuff that is really art. Art is a result. It is a trace of those who have led their lives

'What is worth while?' The majority of people have failed to ask themselves seriously enough, and have failed to try seriously enough to answer this question

Life is being wasted. The human family is not having half the fun that it is due, not making the beautiful things it would make, and each one is not as good news to the other as he might be, just because we are educated off our natural track. We need another form of education

The mystery of nature is in each man. When we are wiser we will not assume to mould ourselves, but will make our ignorance stand aside—hands off—and we will watch our own development. We will learn from ourselves. This habit of conducting nature is a bad one

For the critics of their times, Manet, Corot, Millet, took interest in the wrong side of things. They did not do the expected, but were pioneers—followed their very individual whims, told their publics what they wanted their publics to hear, not what their publics already knew and wanted to be told over again

Never change the course of a line until you have to

When art has attained its place, surfaces will be infinitely less broken. There will then be millions less of things, less words, less gesture, less of everything. But each word and each gesture and everything will count in a fuller value

When we have attained a sense of the relative value of things, we will need fewer things. We will not change a line or form or color until we have to—and when we do make a change, a wealth of meaning will then fill the world from this new gesture

Man suffers, but it is in very little that he knows why he suffers. He is happy and he is equally ignorant. As he comes to know better the significance of change he can be less hurt and he can move more swiftly to his natural environment

Be game—take a chance—don't hide

It takes a tremendous amount of courage to be young, to continue growing—not to settle and accept

The most beautiful life possible is only attainable by effort. To be free, to be happy and fruitful, can only be attained through sacrifice of many common but overestimated things

Manet did not do the expected. He was a pioneer. He followed his individual whim. Told the public what he wanted it to know, not the time-worn things the public already knew and thought it wanted to hear again. The public was very much offended

When we freshen, become disposed toward health and happiness, move forward into hopeful philosophy. Then comes the stamp of personal whim

Technique becomes a tool, not an objective. We are interested and we have expressions we must make. All things are appreciated with an abundance of humor. There is an association with nature

Associations with nature. It's a state to be in and a state to paint in

There is a past, present and future in the fall of a dress. Don't arrange it

Try to reduce everything you see to the utmost simplicity. That is, let nothing but the things which are of the utmost importance to you have any place

The more simply you see, the more simply you will render. People see too much, scatteringly

It is important that you reach out for all information regarding the materials you use. You must know your tools. You must have the best, and they must be in perfect arrangement for service

Masters insist on good tools, and they develop a remarkable order in their preparation for work, and this order continues throughout their performance

One does as one's neighbor does

The thing to do is for each individual to wake up, to discover himself as a human being, with needs of his own. To look about, learn from all sources, look within, and find if he can invent for himself a vehicle for his self-expression. He has a world of precedents to begin on, some within his sight, and more can be found. Let him move about a bit; investigate the needs of his own case

To have ideas one must have imagination

To express ideas one must have science

You will wake up to the fact that the only education that counts is self-education

Know of the personalities of the artists themselves

When children are taken to a museum they are too often talked out of their personal appreciations

As to your 'method' of work try something different

Venture, meet some other difficulties, be a real student

Real students go out oof beaten paths, whether beaten by themselves or by others, and have adventure with the unknown

It is only the student who dares to take a chance, who has a real good time in life

It is even possible for you to follow your old method and have the adventures and come out all right. It's altogether what you are able to get out of it

Be sure that your decisions are really made by yourself

Very few people know what they want, very few people know what they think

Self-education is no easy proposition

Men either get to know what they want, and go after it, or some other persons tell them what they want and drive them after it

I can't tell you what you want to do, can't lay any plans for your doing it. You must surprise me. I am not interested in your being the kind of regular fellow who tells me what I know before. The case is in your own hands. Get as much acquainted with yourself as you can. Question yourself. After a while you may get some answers. They will surprise you and shock you, but they will interest you. Maybe you will get so that you will begin to do things for yourself. It will be very fine when you can begin to serve yourself.

After all, your 'method' of work is nothing. Why be tied to any method? You will say that when you step out of your rut you don't do as well. But what does that matter? It may come better later. Anyway, don't be a slave to a 'method,' by a 5-by-9 piece of paper. Don't let anyone drive you away from your method and your 5-by-9 piece of paper. Don't be a slave either way. Ask yourself

Everything depends on those who go on anyway

Every community should have its own will, and have the courage of it. Should develop its own power of judgment. Mistakes must be riskeed

An artist must educate himself, he cannot bee educated, he must test things out as they apply to himself; his life is one long investigation of things and his own reaction to them

Genius is not a possession of the limited few, but exists in some degree in everyone. Where there is natural growth, a full and free play of faculties, genius will manifest itself

It is useless to study technique in advance of having a motive. Instead of establishing a vast stock of technical tricks, it would be far wiser to develop creative power by constant search for means particular to a motive already in mind, by studying and developing just that technique which you feel the immediate need of, and which alone will serve you for the idea or the emotion which has moved you to expression

But you have got to think there alone, and work to keep yourself company, and thinking and working is what counts. In the cities, in the studios, there is usually too little time to think matters through. Most things are skimmed, and people often believe they are doing quite a good deal themselves when they are only being jostled by others

Whatever will be interesting will be your ideas, and whatever will be done will be your work

Few have the courage or stamina to go through the parts one has to go through alone in more than one

I don't believe in being inhuman. I should feel sorry for the man who would not cry for the company and for sympathy. The human creature must have these things, and when you can't stand it you will have to dig out and get your belly full—and then go back

To work, mind and body, and too be alone enough to concentrate is thee thing

Get ready for the wonder of it, and paint like a fiend while the ideas possess you

We can't hope always to succeed. But by fighting for it, out of the whole crop of a season's work there are surely some things that look like one's simple healthy view of life

Simulating activity, mental and physical, moral courage, invention in expression to fit the idea to be expressed; the study, therefore, of specific technique, not stock technique. Impressing the importance of the Idea, that it must have weight, value, be well worth putting forth and in such permanent medium. The development, therefore, of individuality, searcch for the just means of expressing same simply and fully. The development, therefore, of artists of mind, philosophy, sympathy, courage, invention. Taking their work as a matter of vital importance to the world, considering their technique as a medium of utterance of their most personal philosophy of life, their view of the subject—one that must be important and worthy of their powers of seeing and understanding

A realization of the importance of his word, and the evidence he has to give

Work both mind and body to the limit of his endurance to find himself whatever there is of value, to find his truest thoughts and find a means, the simplest, straightest, the most fit means to make record of them. To be the deepest thinker, the kindest appreciator, the clearest and simplest, frankest creator he can be today, for by so doing he is the master of such as he has today, and that he is master today is the only dependable evidence that he will be master tomorrow; that he has dignity, worth, integrity, courage in his thought and action today proves that he is today a student such as is worthy of the name in its fullest meaning

Art is simply a result of expression during right feeling. It's a result of a grip on the fundamentals of nature, the spirit of life, the constructive force, the secret of growth, a real understanding of the relative importance of things, order, balance. Any material will do. After all, the object is not to make art, but to be in the wonderful state which makes art inevitable

The real artists are too busy with just being and growing and acting like themselves to worry about the end. The end will be what it will be. The object is intense living, fulfillment; the great happiness in creation. People sometimes phrase about the joy of work. It is only in creative work that joy may be found

To create we must get down to bedrock. You cannot construct unless you get at the principles of construction

We will be happy if we can get around to the idea that art is not an outside and extra thing; that it is a natural outcome of a state of being; that the state of being is the important thing; that a man can be a carpenter and be a great man

A great nation must be a happy one

A man possessed of an idea, working like fury to hold his grip on it and to fix it on canvas may not stop to see just how he is doing the work; nor may he consider what might be any outsider's opinion of it. He must hold his grip on the meaning he has caught from nature, and he cannot grope for ways of expression. His need is immediate. The idea is fleeting. He must have technique—but he can now use only what he actually knows

He is not in the hour of research. He is in the hour of expression. The only thing he has in mind is the idea

A young girl may come into a room with her thoroughly unconscious gesture bring animation and a sense of youth, health and good will. It is a fine technique which she employs, for all in the room receive her message and she imparts without loss somewhat of her youth and spirit to each one present. Her technique is handled as only a master could handle it; that is, without thinking of it

If she is one of those terrible creatures who must walk and talk with the airs of their betters, who must in some way pretend to be that which they are not, we may see a very skilled technique, one filled with a thousand clever tricks, but it is a self-conscious technique—one which is an end in itself

A scientist is not a scientist in order to be a scientist. He is what he is because he wants to know about life

The young girl wants to live in the happiness of her state—therefore her buoyant gesture

The artist wishes to declare the significances he finds in nature—therefore the painter's technique

The eye is not made in a stoke or two because he wants to make it in a stroke or two. He does not care how many or how few strokes it takes. The eye is what he wants

Be a warhorse for work, and enjoy even the struggle against defeat. Keep painting, it's the best thing in the world to do. Learn that there are different views and that it is up to you to make your own judgments

If a new movement in art comes along be awake to it, study it, but don't belong to it. Have a personal humor about things. You will never know your caliber until you have tried yourself. Avoid idle industry. Try new things that appeal to you. Examine others. Have a pioneer spirit. Prevent your drawings from being common. Put life into it. See the model, see that the model is great, wonderful—a human creature there before you in the tragedy and comedy of life—then draw. Avoid mannerisms, your own and other people's. Preserve your originality by painting what is before you as you see it, for things have a special loook to you

Don't ever stock your head so full of 'learning' that there will be no room left for personal thinking. Develop your power of seeing through the effort of pleasure of seeing. Develop the power to express through the effort and pleasure of expression

Everything depends on the attitude of the artist toward his subject

Whoever approaches a child without humility, without wonderment and without infinite respect, misses in his judgment of what is before him, and loses an opportunity for a marvelous response. Children are greater than the grown man. All grown men have more experience, but only a very few retain the greatness that was theirs before the system of compromises began in their lives. I have never respected any man more than I have some children. In the faces of children I have seen a look of wisdom and of kindness expressed with such ease and such certainty that I knew it was the expression of a whole race

The student in the school or the artist in the studio must bee in a highly sensitive and receptive mood, that negligence is not a characteristic of the artist, that he must not bind himself with preconceived ideas, must keep himself free in the attitude of attention, for he can never be greater than the thing before him—which is nature, whatever else it is, and nature contains all mysteries

Art is the giving by each man of his evidence to the world. Those who wish to give, love to give, discover the pleasure of giving. Those who give are tremendously strong

Be always looking for the thing you likee and not afraid of overstating it. We want the simple vision of one who sees and enjoys

What we need is more sense of the wonder of life and less of this business of making a picture

The only true modern movement is a frank expression of self

The artist should have a powerful will. He should be powerfully possessed by one idea. He should be intoxicated with the idea of the thing he wants to express

We have very little idea and sight of big things, but a splendid idea of little ones

People have not looked largely at life, mainly because our education drowns us in details. We don't see the why of it all

There is a joy in the pursuit of anything

Life is finding yourself. It is a spirit development

The act of receiving is as difficult a feat and as creative as the act of giving

Let yourself free to be what you will be

Be yourself today, don't wait till tomorrow. He who is master of what he has today will be master of what he has tomorrow

An artist is a master at the start, if he is ever going to be one. Masters are people who use what they have

No man has ever over-appreciated a human being

What you see is not what is over there, but what you are capable of seeing. It is a creation of your own mind

Think of the idea you want to give while you are painting

Self-education, only, produces expression of self

Don't ask for a criticism until you are sure you can't give it yourself. Then you will be in a fine state to receive it

You cannot impose education on anyone

Nobody in the land is free, for they are all asking, 'What do people expect of me?'

Fight with yourself when you paint, not with the model. A student is one who struggles with himself, struggles for order

Positiveness makes for good art. Don't work flatly, softly, roundly, and negatively

You will never get form till you want it. And wanting to want it is not wanting it

To paint is to know how to put nothing on a canvas, and have it look like something when you stand back

Think of solidity as you work

After laughter one should feel full, not empty as one feels after fireworks

Learn giving and receiving in giving

Paint mountains as they are when they look wonderful to you, when they seem to move and have a life of their own. Try to discover what it is you see when they look so wonderful

Mountains are great living things under the sky

Render the waterfall not merely as a waterfall, but use the waterfall as an expression of life

There is more in a house than the materials it is made of. Humanize the houses

Everybody who has any respect for painting feels scared when he starts a new canvas

A person who has never been afraid has no imaginatioon

Brilliancy is going toward color, not toward white

Color is only beatiful when it means something. It is never good of itself. It must be the expression of some life value

Color and warmth are coming into our lives

A big simple space is often a good complement to activity

A very dark picture is likely to look well in a white frame

A very light picture may look well in a black frame

The frame should be an agreeable complement to the picture

Do whatever you do intensely

The artist is the man who leaves the crowd and goes pioneering. With him there is an idea which is his life

The signature on a picture should be modest, should be readable and simple and should enter into, not interrupt, the composition

The real artist's work is a surprise to himself

The big painter is one who has something to say. He thus does not paint men, landscape or furniture, but an idea

In looking at the work of another, try to enter into his vision

First look for the beauties in a painting

A worker or painter should enjoy his work, else the observer will not enjoy it. It is not good to wear lace that was a drudgery to someone to make. The lace, as well as the picture, should be made in joy

All real works of art look as though they were done in joy

The coming into presence of a piece of art you truly love causes a tremendous revolution to occur in you

Every touch you put down is part of a construction. All that is not related to the basic idea is destructive to the canvas. The laws of composition should be those of growth. The work should have the spirit of growth in it

A good composition is thus an expression of will. Get the idea of progression. The artist uses thee principle of nature. Growth equals beauty. All structure is built up by variety

Take care that your compositions are an expression of your individuality. See things not as they are, but as you see them

Try to see the terms of the reality, and not the terms of the surface. A child sees the reality beyond the surface or fact, but later in an art school he is taught to see the lines on the surface. Get over this thing of copying the surface. You must not see your subject, but through it

We should not need to have a picture full of things

Good composition is like a suspension bridge, each line adds strength and takes none away. A work of art is finished from the beginning

Be sure you are composing to express yourself, noot composing to compose

Feel the dignity of a child. Do not feel superior to him, for you are not

A work of art is the trace of a magnificant struggle

They are records of the thought and struggle of an artist. The picture stands as a record of how much and how little the artist knew, as rough as he was and as capable as he was. The mistakes left in a drawing are the record of the artist's struggle

In great art there is no beginning and end in point of time. All time is comprehended