A beautiful exposition of what drives authentic creativity,
"There is an UNDERCURRENT, the real life, beneath all appearances everywhere...It is this sense of the persistent life force back of things which makes the eye see and the hand move in ways that result in true masterpieces. Techniques are thus created as a need...All outward success, when it has value, is but the inevitable result of an inward success of full living, full play and enjoyment of one's faculties...." (Henri, 92-92).
"But there is another deeper change in progress. It is of long, steady persistent growth, very little affected and not at all disturbed by surface conditions. The artist today should be ALIVE TO THIS DEEPER EVOLUTION on which all growth depends, has depended and will depend...It is in search of fundamental principle; that basic principle of all, which in degree as it is apprehended points the way to beauty and order, and to the law of nature" (Henri, 94).
On appreciating art, and the imperative of engaging with it, grappling with it, showing up for it..
"The appreciation of art should not be considered as merely a pleasurable pastime. To appreciate beauty is to work for it. It is a mighty and entrancing effort, and the enjoyment of a picture is not only in the pleasure it inspires, but in the comprehension of the new order of construction used in its making."