O.K. here are some thoughts eventhough they are someone else's.

THE ART SPIRIT: Robert Henri 1865-1929
Notes, Articles, Fragments of Letters and Talks, compiled by Margery Ryerson

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 he opens ways for a better understanding. Where those who are not artists are trying to close the book, he opens it, shows there are still more pages possible. . . . .

The world would stagnate without him, and the world would be beautiful with him; for he is interesting to himself and he is interesting to others. He does not have to be a painter or sculptor to be an artist. He can work in any medium. He simply has to find the gain in the work itself, not outside it. . . . .

Museums of art will not make a country an art country. But where there is the art spirit there will be precious works to fill museums. Better still, there will be the happiness that is in the making. Art tends towards balance, order, judgment of relative values, the laws of growth, the economy of living - very good things for anyone to be interested in.

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