Some pages hum with bravery — the quiet kind that picks up a brush, a pen, a camera, and tries again. Curator Anne Tucker reminds us that “all art requires courage,” and dance pioneer Ted “Papa” Shawn adds the spark behind that courage: “The artist must be ecstatic about something.” This gallery gathers voices that defend wonder, keep curiosity fresh, and insist that art is worth the risk.

Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth. ~ Theodor Adorno

A work of art is a corner of creation seen through a temperament. ~ Emilé Zola

All art requires courage. ~ Anne Tucker

Everybody’s an art critic. ~ Judith Martin

When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and opens ways for a better understanding. ~ Robert Henri

You can’t do sketches enough. Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh. ~ John Singer Sargent

I always wanted to show the world that art is everywhere, except it has to pass through a creative mind. ~ Louise Nevelson

An artist observes, selects, guesses, and synthesizes. ~ Anton Chekhov

When art find no temple open, it takes refuge in the workshop. ~ Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

The wretched artist himself is alternatively the lowest worm that ever crawled when no fire is in him; or the loftiest god that ever sang when the fire is going. ~ Caitlin Thomas

The artist must / createhimself or be born again. ~ Denise Levertov

What an artist is for is to tell us what we see but do not know that we see. ~ Edith Sitwell

Art is collective. Always, it has a tradition behind it. ~ Joanna Russ

Art should be like a holiday: something to give a man the opportunity to see things differently and to change his point of view. ~ Paul Klee