Theresa Sjoquist > Quotes

“I realised that I had become too introverted. When you are the person everyone comes to in an isolated area, you have no-one to discuss things with. It's good up to a point but dreadful in a way. You simply have to have the corners rubbed off you and have criticism that's pretty cruel if you are to toe the line.”
― Theresa Sjoquist

“Later in life the force of abstinence was to really be understood and my parent's problems became very clear. When will man appreciate his pleasures and respect them enough to indulge in moderation?”
― Theresa Sjoquist, Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit

“Today they are teaching the subject of art as a frill in school, partly due to intellectual preciousness that has crept into art departments with the making of the History of Art. Intellectualising places art on a pedestal only for the few, causing New Zealanders to revert to the invented snobbery that tends to ignore anything arty as exotic, unattainable, not wholesome.”
― Theresa Sjoquist, Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit

“I have never found a solo life is devastated.At times it is lonely.It is a selfish life doing only the things you want to do. That is what the general public are jealous of but are not prepared to take the loneliness to reap the excitement that only solos can accept without having to consider others.”
― Theresa Sjoquist

“I know where I am going now with art. I have found myself. Yvonne Rust 1994, aged 72.”
― Theresa Sjoquist

“Knowledge is addictive. Keep it up.”
― Theresa Sjoquist

“Doing brings happiness. T
oo much time for discussion - discord.”
― Theresa Sjoquist, Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit

“She was an autocrat, didn't really believe in democracy. The benefit of her approach was that, if you work with twenty people and ask everybody's opinion, you would never achieve what she did.”
― Theresa Sjoquist

“It was hard to get jobs on farms doing wool-classing, but I got them. They had to learn to like a female wool-classer.”
― Theresa Sjoquist

“I decided I had to find out if it was my scene or not. So I stepped in at the deep end. It leads you to survive or drown. Very often you survive.”
― Theresa Sjoquist, Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit

“Leading the way forward at great cost to herself, her magnificent energy was so intense that it tumbles down still through many lives.”
― Theresa Sjoquist, Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit

“It's very hard to reach people in Greymouth with pottery or any form of art because they're allergic to it. Allergic to it ever since they began really because they've taken from the ground in the mining spirit without making or creating, and therefore anything that is creative they do not understand.”
― Theresa Sjoquist

“Meanwhile the doctor in Kaitaia had made known to the Education Dept the behaviour patterns of the Rusts in Te Hapua. The Dept always interfered in the private lives of teachers. Break up in marriage was not to be tolerated and an intervention of this authority forced the Rusts to report to Parawera School in the Waikato.”
― Theresa Sjoquist

“No-one has the right to terminate a person's life with a gun, a knife, or a makutu (spell).”
― Theresa Sjoquist, Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit

“When will the human race choose wisely? All know it is just as eventful, if not more so, when the young seek adventure, purpose, and dreams; instead of blaming everyone but themselves if they choose otherwise”
― Theresa Sjoquist, Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit

“When will the human race choose wisely? All know it is just as eventful, if not more so, when the young seek adventure, purpose, and dreams; instead of blaming everyone but themselves if they choose otherwise.”
― Theresa Sjoquist, Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit

“Doing brings happiness. Too much time for discussion - discord.”
― Theresa Sjoquist

“In my small way I became an integral part of the pottery movement, and added fuel to the fire which consumed New Zealand and and swept pottery to the forefront of the of the fifties and sixties.”
― Theresa Sjoquist, Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit

“In 1946 there was no money in art, no dealer galleries, no craft shops. After the war we started to teach art in every school for the first time. Our generation played a crucial role. We were the stepping stones towards today's galleries.”
― Theresa Sjoquist

“The art stream is filled with snags and has no volume so it has no support. If you finally choose art, no amount of reason or common sense can discourage you. You must selfishly carry on.”
― Theresa Sjoquist, Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit

“When Margot died after a car accident in which my sister was also seriously injured in November 1970, I sat on a hill behind a friend's house in Greymouth trying to get my head around having to identify the body of my university sweetheart. Yvonne was the only one who came with condolences (Paul Caffyn)”
― Theresa Sjoquist

“The pa system has broken down. Society has broken down.”
― Theresa Sjoquist, Yvonne Rust: Maverick Spirit