I have been reading this The Art Spirit by Robert Henri (very) slowly, and transcribing passages I find particularly inspiring. I feel like I have an ally in my process in this book and it is a comfort and an encouragement.
“There are moments in our lives, there are moments in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual-become clairvoyant…At such times there is a song going on within us, a song to which we listen. It fills us with surprise. We marvel at it. We would continue to hear it. But few are capable of holding themselves in the state of listening to their own song. Intellectuality steps in and as the song within us is of the utmost sensitiveness, it retires in the presence of the cold, material intellect…Yet we living in the memory of these songs which in moments of intellectual inadvertence have been possible to us. They are the pinnacles of our experience and it is the desire to express these intimate sensations, this song from within, which motivates the masters of great art.” (Henri, 44-45)
“Every moment in nature is orderly, one thing the outcome of another, a matter of constructive, growing force. We live our lives in tune with nature when we are happy, and all our misery is the result of our effort to dictate against nature.” (Henri, 50)
“The mind is a tool, it is either clogged, bound, rusty, or it is a clear way to and from the soul. An artist should not be afraid of his tools. He should not be afraid to know.” (Henri, 54).
About art works that continue to draw us in: “There is a life stirring in them.” (Henri, 66)
“All manifestations of art are but but landmarks in the progress of the human spirit toward a thing but as yet sensed and far from being possessed. The man who has honesty, integrity, the love of inquiry, the desire to see beyond, is ready appreciate good art.” (Henri, 66)
“Art is the inevitable consequence of growth and is the manifestation of the the principles of its origin.” (67)
“Art need not be intended. It comes inevitably as the tree from the root, the branch from the trunk, the blossom from the twig. none of these forget the present in looking backward or forward. They are occupied wholly with the fulfillment of their own existence. The branch does not boast of the relation it bears to its great ancestor the trunk, and does not claim attention to itself for this honor, nor does it call your attention to the magnificent red apple it is about to bear. Because it is engaged in the full plan of its own existence, because it is full in its own growth, its fruit is inevitable.” (67-68).