Jasper Johns

One works without thinking how to work. ↗

— Jasper Johns

#thinking #without #work #works

Sometimes I see it and then paint it. Other times I paint it and then see it. Both are impure situations, and I prefer neither. ↗

— Jasper Johns

#i #i see #impure #neither #other

Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it. ↗

— Jasper Johns

#object #something #take

The thing is, if you believe in the unconscious - and I do - there's room for all kinds of possibilities that I don't know how you prove one way or another. ↗

— Jasper Johns

#believe #how #i #i do #kinds

There was very little art in my childhood. ↗

— Jasper Johns

#childhood #little #very

To be an artist you have to give up everything, including the desire to be a good artist. ↗

— Jasper Johns

#desire #everything #give #good #including

To do a drawing for a painting most often means doing something very sketchy and schematic and then later making it polished. ↗

— Jasper Johns

#drawing #later #making #means #most

Whatever I do seems artificial and false, to me. ↗

— Jasper Johns

#false #i #i do #me #seems

I was raised in South Carolina; I wasn't aware of any art in South Carolina. There was a minor museum in Charleston, which had nothing of interest in it. It showed local artists, paintings of birds. ↗

— Jasper Johns

#art #artists #aware #birds #carolina

As one gets older one sees many more paths that could be taken. Artists sense within their own work that kind of swelling of possibilities, which may seem a freedom or a confusion. ↗

— Jasper Johns

#confusion #could #freedom #gets #kind