≈≈ For my part I see only forms that are lit up and forms that are not. There is only light and shadow.

~ Francisco de Goya ~ Spanish painter 1746-1828


{269}

≈≈ In my pictures there are tiny forms in vast empty spaces. Empty space, empty horizons, empty plains, everything that is stripped has always impressed me.

~ Joan Miró i Ferrà ~ Catalan painter & sculptor 1893-1983


{268}

≈≈ Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern.


~ Alfred North Whitehead ~ English mathematician 1861-1947



{267}

≈≈ Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.


~ Bertolt Brecht ~ German socialist dramatist & poet 1898-1956



{266}

100 TO GO !
100 TO GO !
100 TO GO !

≈≈ Study nature. Exaggerate light; overstate – the less inhibited you are, the better.

~ Sergei Bongart ~ Russian painter (1918-1985



{265}

≈≈ We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.

~ Iris Murdoch ~ Irish-born British writer 1919-1999



{264}

≈≈ One shouldn't go to the woods looking for something, but rather to see what is there.

~ John Cage ~ American experimental composer 1912-1992


{263}

≈≈ An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.

~ Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ~ French poet & filmmaker 1889-1963


{262}

≈≈ Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz.

~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi ~ Hungarian-born American psychology professor 1934-


{261}

Through ribbons of sand and sea and foam
I bob on forever as I make my way home.


~ Comedy Obscura embellishes xola!



Click to enlarge...

≈≈ Moonlight is sculpture.

~ Nathaniel Hawthorne ~ American novelist 1804-1864


{260}

≈≈ Everyone wants to understand painting. Why is there no attempt to understand the song of the birds?


~ Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Crispín Crispiniano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso ~ Spanish painter & sculptor 1881-1973


{259}

≈≈ With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things.

~ William Wordsworth ~ English romantic poet 1770–1850


{258}

≈≈ There are optical illusions in time as well as space.

~Marcel-Valentin-Louis-Eugène-Georges Proust ~ French novelist & critic 1871-1922


{257}

≈≈ Simplicity of shape does not necessarily equate with simplicity of experience.


~ Robert Morris ~ American sculptor & conceptual artist 1931-


{256}

≈≈ xola interpreted by Comedy Obscura!

≈≈ Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.


~ Albert Einstein ~ German-born physicist 1879-1955


{255}

≈≈ Galileo reminded us that truth is written in a different alphabet from ours: its characters are triangles, squares, circles, spheres, pyramids, cones and other geometrical figures.


~ Giorgio Morandi ~ Italian artist 1890-1946



{254}

≈≈ Silence! I am learning to know the silence of a Tahitian night.

~ Paul Gauguin ~ French painter 1848-1903



{253}

≈≈ I come from a culture where calligraphy is art.


~ Yoko Ono 小野 洋子 ~ Japanese-American artist 1933-



{252}

≈≈ Excuse me while I kiss the sky.


~ Jimi Hendrix ~ American musician 1942-1970



{251}

≈≈ Abstract art requires something of the viewer. It demands contemplation. Study. Flights of fancy. Feeling.

~ Svante Rydberg ~ Swedish artist 19-?



{250}

≈≈ Red is the ultimate cure for sadness.


~ Bill Blass ~ American designer 1922-2002



{248}

≈≈ A poem is never finished, only abandoned.


~ Paul Valery ~ French poet 1871-1945


{247}

Artist ~ Jani Isenhart

≈≈ We must select the illusion which appeals to our temperament and embrace it with passion, if we want to be happy.

~ Cyril Connolly ~ English critic & editor 1903–1974


{246}

≈≈ It is always the simple that produces the marvelous.


~ Amelia Barr ~ American novelist 1831-1919


{245}

≈≈ A creative block is a fear about the future, a guess about the dangers dwelling in the dark computer and the locked studio.

~ Eric Maisel ~ American psychologist & writer !947-


{244}

≈≈ Often while traveling with a camera we arrive just as the sun slips over the horizon of a moment, too late to expose film, only time enough to expose our hearts.


~ Minor White ~ American photographer 1908-1976


{243}

≈≈ There is still a difference between something and nothing, but it is purely geometrical and there is nothing behind the geometry.


~ Martin Gardner ~ American mathematician 1914-



{242}

≈≈ Despite what's happening in the outside world, in our studios or in front of artworks we experience moments of genuine stillness, intensity, and meaningfulness — places on the edge of language that the world can't strip away. These aren't just imaginary flights of fancy or retreats into aestheticism. In this imperfect realm we experience the undeniable, elemental truth that sometimes, just by making or looking at art, we might discern the full range of human possibilities.

~ Jerry Saltz ~ Art critic for the Village Voice

Happy New Year to all of you who have followed xola for these many months. Thank you so much for your generous comments and encouragement. I hope you stay tuned until #365!

xola