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Plucking Thistles |
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"I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow." —Abraham Lincoln What is the purpose of art, if not this? Every artist who has ever lifted a brush, shaped clay, or captured light through a lens has faced the thistle-strewn ground of our world... |
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A View from the Studio | Maurice Quillian |
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"Music is God's glue, it holds the Universe together." This is how Maurice Quillinan describes the soundtrack to his creative practice a philosophy that extends to his entire approach to artmaking in his Limerick, Ireland studio. "When I close the door it's just me and the dogs and the work and music and no phone," he explains. "It's the best place in the world just to concentrate on painting and drawing." |
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Your Brain on Art |
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| When you stand before a painting, play a musical instrument, or shape clay with your hands, something remarkable happens inside your body. These creative encounters trigger a cascade of physiological responses, quite literally rewiring your brain and reshaping how you process the world. | |||||
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Finding Art in the Unexpected |
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| We're often taught that art happens in special places, made by special people with special training. But real creativity is more like this sign: an accumulation of small, authentic expressions building over time. The sketch in the margin. The song hummed while walking. The story shared over coffee. Choosing to add beauty to something that didn't ask for it, simply because we feel moved to do so. | |||||
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Walls, Windows & Doors: a metaphor for creativity |
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| Three ordinary features define every space we inhabit: walls, windows, and doors. Together, they offer a profound metaphor for how we create. | |||||
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Where Does Inspiration Come From? |
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It’s a question that has baffled, enchanted, and driven creative minds throughout history. Where does inspiration come from? Is it a bolt from the blue, a whisper in the wind, or something found in the everyday moments we so often overlook? |
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The Threads That Bind |
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In this dance between faith, family, and freedom, art becomes more than aesthetic achievement it becomes a bridge between souls, a record of our struggles and triumphs, and a testament to the enduring human need to create meaning from the raw materials of existence. Each brushstroke, each word, each note carries within it the accumulated wisdom of generations while reaching toward possibilities not yet imagined. |
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Celebrating the Journey of Art & Play |
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| The meeting place of play and art creates a warm space where creativity, exploration, and self-expression can flourish. Both play and art nurture human development, especially during childhood, though their gifts enrich us throughout our lives. When we honor the playful spirit within art, we welcome experimentation, joy, and the freedom to create without worrying about perfection. | |||||
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| Wonder is the golden thread that weaves through the tapestry of human creativity, binding our capacity to see, feel, and express the world in ways that transcend the mundane. It is the spark that ignites artistic vision and the flame that sustains creative endeavor. In the relationship between art, creativity, and wonder, we find not just an aesthetic philosophy but a fundamental truth about what it means to be human. | |||||
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Negotiating with Doubt |
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Every morning, the artist sits down to work and immediately finds themselves in a familiar negotiation. On one side of the table sits confidence, insisting that today's work will matter, that the world needs what they have to offer. On the other side lounges doubt, arms crossed, asking with a smirk: "But really, who cares?" This is the daily diplomacy of the creative life. Unlike other professions where external validation provides regular proof of worth, artists must constantly broker peace between these two fundamental forces. |
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Einstein's Miracle Philosophy & the Creative Spirit |
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| "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." Albert Einstein's profound observation reveals a fundamental truth about how we engage with the world around us. This choice between wonder and indifference becomes particularly significant when we consider the realm of art and creativity, where the capacity for marvel can mean the difference between mechanical production and transformative expression. | |||||
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The Viewer's Journey |
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Every viewer embarks on their own journey of recognition when encountering art, creating "recognition moments" when we see something in a painting, read something in a poem, or hear something in music that makes us think, "Yes, that's exactly how I feel, but I never had words for it." These moments transform the gallery experience from passive observation into an active journey of collaboration between viewer and creator. |
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What's the Point! |
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Creating something with our hands and hearts asks us to bring together everything we know and feel, blending technique with intuition, memory with imagination. This process teaches our minds to dance with uncertainty, to find comfort in not knowing exactly where we're headed. We become more flexible thinkers, better at seeing connections and possibilities that weren't obvious before. Perhaps the most beautiful thing about art and creativity is how they honor our need to make something beautiful, meaningful, or joyful for its own sake. |
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The Inner Voice |
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The inner voice is both one of a creative person's most powerful tools and their greatest potential obstacle. How you relate to this internal dialogue can make or break your creative journey. At its best, your inner voice serves as an intuitive guide, helping you sense when something feels authentic or when you're moving in the right direction. It's the part of you that whispers "yes, that's it" when you hit on something meaningful, or suggests unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated ideas. Many creatives describe learning to trust this subtle inner knowing, especially when it conflicts with external expectations or conventional wisdom. |
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Duty over Dreams |
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Jefferson's sacrifices were substantial. He postponed completing Monticello's dome for nearly a decade. His plans for the University of Virginia's architecture sat in drawers while he navigated political storms. Though he despised public speaking, he delivered crucial addresses that shaped a nation. He gave up his quiet scholarly pursuits for the messy work of governance. This pattern extends into the creative realm. Artists today often discover that circumstances constrain them from their purest visions. |
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