Wise Words: The Artist

… an artist is not, in essence, a virtuoso. An oeuvre can hold our attention and move us only to the extent that we perceive in it a response to a spiritual and emotional necessity. The artist seeks to compensate for some deep-rooted sense of lack which causes acute discomfort. Impelled by an existential unease whose nature is not our concern, he or she surpasses others despite feeling bereft of something which they apparently take for granted. “What distinguishes the artist from the dilettante”, [Odilon] Redon observed, “is simply the pain experienced by the former. The dilettante looks to art only for his pleasure.”

(Michael Gibson, Odilon Redon: 1840–1916 – The Prince of Dreams, Taschen: Köln, 2011, p. 8)

Odilon Redon – Reflection, pastel (1900–1905) 
Source: Wikimedia Commons