Artistic Life Quotes

“The artistic life is a long and lovely suicide precisely because it involves the negation of self; as Highsmith imagined herself as her characters, so Ripley takes on the personae of others and in doing so metamorphoses himself into a 'living' work of art. A return to the 'real life' after a period of creativity resulted in a fall in spirits, an agony Highsmith felt acutely. She voiced this pain in the novel via Bernard's quotation of an excerpt from Derwatt's notebook: 'There is no depression for the artist except that caused by a return to the self'.”
― Andrew Wilson, Patricia Highsmith, ζωή στο σκοτάδι

“A person of large dreams does not allow other people’s opinion to damper his or her zestfulness. Overcoming fear of making an irreversible, lifetime mistake is the first step of living an artistic existence.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Life for the artist and all humanity is a soulful objet d’art full of hope, promise, expectation, romance, love, and affection.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“What I’m after, above all, is a sense of divine inspiration
that touches the very core of my being.

That lives throughout every aspect of my existence,

so all I do and all I see is beauty in the simplicity,
and mystery in the unknown.

To let nothing drag me into the monotony of living,

but to always move to the unique rhythm of each passing day.
To give nothing but all of me- my soul, my heart, my fire.”
― Sarah Loven, Les Belles Lettres

“Advancing towards a person’s dreams with confidence enables a person to move beyond restrictive boundaries and meet with uncommon success. Liberated from personal insecurities and eliminating useless second guessing enables a person to live an imagined life.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“The supreme artist lives as closely as possible to replicating the perfect dream, with life unfolding in a manner that a person could never conceive or direct.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“All people must advance through the same physical stages of life and deal with the similar environmental challenges, societal obligations, and family duties. Is it common for the incessant demands of survival completely to inundate the vast majority of people, if not utterly incapacitate them? Do the external conundrums of birth, taxes, illness, and death preoccupy most people? If so, will only select people seek clarity? Do most people fill their lives to the brim with the stupendous task of making a living, taking care of household matters, and chasing recreation? If most people expend all their energy reserves in mundane subsistence activities, how is it that select people of every era create magnificent works of art, literature, and music that uplift all of humanity?”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Seasons,the sad dreams and happiness give,like in on end,the bleak summers bear heart-felt sighs of death that circles the grave;and church bells toll loudly so deep and drear.”
― Nithin Purple, Venus and Crepuscule

“It is possible to live a life that looks like a work of art, where all your thoughts and actions flow from some settled place of experience and knowledge.”
― Eric Overby

“She thought of the wax-white knook and shivered as she brushed against a pale pink tree branch. Was nothing the proper color here? Even the greens were more brilliant, more like paint than nature, the kinds of outlandish color she usually tried to temper in her own artwork.
If she stayed, she thought absently, she could paint with the trees themselves, learn to sculpt petals and dew, hone even an animal into an ideal she created for it. She could craft beauty more rare and arresting than she ever could with watercolor and oil. She'd craved more of the world on the other side of the veil, wanted to taste the kind of success and belonging Alaine had, wanted recognition for her talents. Perhaps she could make that for herself here. Perrysburg, Pierce--- those had been poor illusions blurring what she really wanted.
It would not be all pain, would it? Trading herself for Emily? All the places she had ever wanted to go, all the things she had ever wanted to see, all the art she had ever wanted to create--- didn't this place outstrip anything in her own world for beauty and discovery?”
― Rowenna Miller, The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill