Art Technique Quotes

“In the summer of 1961, Segal taught an adult painting class in New Brunswick. The class was encouraged to make use of odd and unlikely materials in assemblages, and one woman brought to class a box of surgeon's bandages. Segal took some home, with the intention of wrapping them around one of his chicken wire framworks. Then a thought occurred to him: why not dip the cloth bandages in plaster, and apply them directly to the body? Segal sat on a chair and instructed his wife to cover him in soaked bandages. The new technique led to a few anxious moments when the plaster began to harden, heat up, and contract, and the artist lost a good portion of his body hair in the course of frantically removing the casts. With great difficulty, he was able to reassemble the pieces into a complete figure which he then placed on a chair. Next Segal provided an environment for his plaster effigy. The chair was moved up to a table, to which was nailed an old window frame. The result, entitled Man Sitting at a Table, marked the discovery of a new sculptural technique and a turning point in the artist's career.
Segal has never looked back.”
― Sam Hunter, George Segal

“Artistic "style" that does not evolve as a result of a natural process is the embodiment of "fake it till you make it," referring to the way something APPEARS, not the way that it IS. It's a veneer, a hollow afterthought technique hung on the artwork to dress it up... I prefer to think in terms of the artist's VOICE. Voice is deeper, manifested from the very core of your being. You earn it through research, experimentation, and discovery. It is a synthesis of the experiences, intellectual concepts, and aesthetic interests you possess, executed in your distinctive way, in the formal, emotional and intellectual language of your chosen medium. When successful, the realization of your voice follows the gestalt principle. The combination of your ideas and the work's physical embodiment is greater than the sum of its parts and distinguishes your outcome from everyone else's.”
― Kate Kretz, Art from Your Core: A Holistic Guide to Visual Voice