Friday, July 13, 2007

Quotable Quote - Photographer Isaac

I believe art---even at its most beautiful---is at the core, motivated by pain. That is because art is made by human beings and as human beings, pain is what motivated everything we do. We are either causing it or running from it or facing it, but pain is always there, bracketing what we do. To get more mystical, we are born of pain, we live in pain, and we die in pain. There is, in my opinion, no way to make authentic art and in our case, pure and moving photographs, without feeling and showing pain---sometimes ours and sometimes that of our subjects.
Earlene Fowler, Broken Dishes

David Walker has a page of wonderful quotations on his website:

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. I think that at my very core I disagree with this quote. Much art does come from pain but I am at heart an optimist and full of hope. Much art that speaks deeply to me is about beauty, and love. There is art that speaks about pain... but not every bit.

On the other hand... it is difficult to appreciate love and beauty without having been exposed to ugliness and pain.

Gwen Magee (Gwendolyn) said...

Good point Lyric. There is art filled with beauty that I also find very moving. Looks like I have some homework to do; to find quotes speaking from that perspective.

Anonymous said...

Brings to mind the argument about whether the works of Elton John, Liza Minnelli, and others did better work when they were deep in pain producing addictions. I believe that somethings going on when one produces art that allows the piece to become the language of that moment. Not necessarily pain, but great joy, a realization, a moment in ones life that one wants to document.

Gwen Magee (Gwendolyn) said...

Anonymous, I think the following quote touches on what you're saying:

"Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does, the better." Andre Gide (1869 - 1951)