16. Quote(s)

16. Quote(s)

The two quotes to which I most often refer are this score, by Pauline Oliveros, which is almost a philosophy for life.
I sometimes think my whole practice is just me performing ongoing versions and refinements of this score by the amazing late composer, Pauline Oliveros…

“Openfield, 1980

When a site, sound, movement, or place attracts your attention during your daily life, consider that moment an “art experience”. Find a way to record an impression of this momentary “art experience” using any appropriate means or media. Share these experiences with each other and make them available to others.”
– Pauline Oliveros

…and this quote that I photographed at a Volksboutique installation by Christine Hill in 2003. I have kept my blurry battered photo of the sign-painted quote by my desk ever since:

“Art is the demonstration that the ordinary is extraordinary.”
– Amedee Ozenfant

The workbook for my course, Colour at Play, has quotes at the start of each section, to give context for the tasks. I especially love the ones that foreground Section 3: BEFRIENDING COLOUR MISTAKES:

“Starting a Fair Isle sweater project by trying to pin down where every color will go in the final design is impossible – until the first swatches are made to see the color interactions, we just don’t have enough information to put the final placement in ink. Expecting that we should be able to anticipate how the colors and patterns will work ahead of time makes it very hard to even start knitting. Embrace imperfection. Learn from mistakes. Don’t judge your insides by other people’s outsides. Just start.”
– from the chapter Getting it Done in The Joy of Color by Janine Bajus, 2016.

“Be brave. Be uninhibited. Be joyful. Be willing to make mistakes. Always keep an open mind, a mind that’s open, most of all, to the acceptance of apparent slips or failures. If you don’t like your results, if what you make doesn’t look at all like you imagined, it really doesn’t matter.”
– from the chapter Mess Up in Wheesht: Creative Making in Uncertain Times by Kate Davies, 2019.

“Failure is the information you need to get where you’re going. When working through ways of solving a puzzle, there are no mistakes. Each unsuccessful solution gets you closer to one that works.” – from the chapter Try Everything in The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin, 2023.

I like all these quotes because together they affirm the value in using creativity to elevate and celebrate the everyday; and they offer assurance that when we are making things, we will also make mistakes – and that this is an important and necessary part of making. There’s another quote I love, though I don’t know who said it, that I think of often: “if you’re not making a mess, you’re not making”.

What quotes are important for your learning?
Please also see this lovely post by Kate Davies about the important quote “The world is my book“.
#KNITSONIKbacktoschool