Art's central magic

“The compelling thing about making art — or making anything, I suppose — is the moment when the vaporous, insubstantial idea becomes a solid there, a thing, a substance in a world of substances. Circe, Nimbue, Artemis, Athena, all the old sorceresses: they must have known the feeling as they transformed mere men into fabulous creatures, stole the secrets of the magicians, disposed armies: ah, look, there it is, the new thing. Call it a swine, a war, a laurel tree. Call it art.”   - Audrey Niffenegger

“The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and that he does it without destroying something else. A kind of refutation of the conservation of matter. That still seems to me its central magic, its core of joy."  - John Updike

Art above, by John William Waterhouse (1848-1917): "Circe";  sketches that Waterhouse made in books of poetry by Shelley and Tennyson; a sketch from the V & A collection; and "Circe Offering the Cup."