Artmaking Quotes

“If I was asked to get rid of the Zen aesthetic and just keep one quality necessary to create art, I would say it’s trust. When you learn to trust yourself implicitly, you no longer need to prove something through your art. You simply allow it to come out, to be as it is. This is when creating art becomes effortless. It happens just as you grow your hair. It grows.”
― John Daido Loori, The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life

“It’s easy to imagine that artists doubted their calling less when working in the service of God than when working in the service of self.”
― David Bayles and Ted Orland

“A writer or any artist can’t expect to be embraced by the people. I've done records where it seemed like no one listened to them. You write poetry books that maybe 50 people read. And you just keep doing your work because you have to, because it’s your calling.”
― Patti Smith

“... fatalism: namely, that it is a species of fear — the fear that your fate is in your own hands, but that your hands are weak.”
― David Bayles and Ted Orland