Jasper Johns Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“To me, self-description is a calamity.”

“I love drawings, so I've always enjoyed making drawings that exist on their own.”

“I have no ideas about what the paintings imply about the world. I don't think that's a painter's business. He just paints paintings without a conscious reason.”

“As one gets older one sees many more paths that could be taken. Artists sense within their own work that kind of swelling of possibilities, which may seem a freedom or a confusion.”

“I don't want my work to be an exposure of my feelings.”

“Sometimes I see it and then paint it. Other times I paint it and then see it. Both are impure situations, and I prefer neither.”

“When something is new to us, we treat it as an experience. We feel that our senses are awake and clear. We are alive.”

“Sometime during the mid-50s I said, 'I am an artist.' Before that, for many years, I had said, 'I'm going to be an artist.' Then I went through a change of mind and a change of heart. What made 'going to be an artist' into 'being an artist', was, in part, a spiritual change.”

“I never wish for critics.”

“I often find that having an idea in my head prevents me from doing something else. Working is therefore a way of getting rid of an idea.”