Dr Joseph Vancell

Born October 25, 1881, Malaga, Spain, Pablo Picasso, became one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century and the creator (with Georges Braque) of Cubism. A Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, Picasso was considered radical in his work. After a long prolific career, he died April 8, 1973 in Mougins, France.

Read more at http://www.biography.com/people/pablo-picasso-944002.

Van Gogh from Philip Scott Johnson on Vimeo.

Sam Jinks' sculptural work sustains the briefest and often most private moments in time. Emotional vulnerability is both the subject and result of his work and moves audiences in a way not expected from contemporary art. For Jinks, his works are not literal representations, but are based on the combination of different stages of life.
Jinks uses these themes of old and new to suggest unrealized potential: the figures are frozen in time, simultaneously at the beginning and end of life. This can be interpreted either as a melancholy reflection of loss, or as the experience of generations standing together with the awareness of life cycles and different stages of development. His hyper-real sculptures have been described as 'poignantly beautiful' as his works create a dialogue on both a technical and emotional level through a strong sensitivity to detail. Created from silicone, fiberglass, resin, calcium carbonate and human hair these works contain a profound sense of the vulnerability and are remarkable in their striking portrayal of the human condition.

From http://www.samjinks.com/


Sam Jinks / Sculptor from Bandit Films on Vimeo.

"This morning I saw the country from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big," Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo, from France. Rooted in imagination and memory, The Starry Night embodies an inner, subjective expression of Van Gogh's response to nature. In thick, sweeping brushstrokes, a flamelike cypress unites the churning sky and the quiet village below. The village was partly invented, and the church spire evokes van Gogh's native land, the Netherlands.

Here are a few of my favourite art definitions:

Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man’s emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity.

Art is a discovery and development of elementary principles of nature into beautiful forms suitable for human use.

Steven Pressfield in The War of Art, one of 5 essential books on fear and the creative process:

To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution.

Oscar Wilde in The Soul of Man Under Socialism:

Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.

Thomas Merton in No Man Is An Island:

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

Francis Ford Coppola in a recent interview:

An essential element of any art is risk. If you don’t take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn’t been seen before? I always like to say that cinema without risk is like having no sex and expecting to have a baby. You have to take a risk.

André Gide in Poétique:

Art begins with resistance — at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor.

Friedrich Nietzsche, made famous all over again by Ray Bradbury in Zen in the Art of Writing:

We have our Arts so we won’t die of Truth.

Great site about Pablo Picasso.  Check out http://www.picasso.fr/us/picasso_page_index.php.