#very

At first I had some idea that the absence of color made the work more physical. Early on I was very involved with the notion of the painting as an object and tended to attack that idea from different directions. ↗

— Jasper Johns

#attack #color #different #different directions #directions

Everyone is of course free to interpret the work in his own way. I think seeing a picture is one thing and interpreting it is another. ↗

— Jasper Johns

#course #everyone #free #his #i

My experience of life is that it's very fragmented; certain kinds of things happen, and in another place, a different kind of thing occurs. I would like my work to have some vivid indication of those differences. ↗

— Jasper Johns

#certain #certain kinds #differences #different #different kind

The only logical thing I can think of is that I knew there were such things as artists, and I knew there were none where I lived. So I knew that to be an artist you had to be somewhere else. And I very much wanted to be somewhere else. ↗

— Jasper Johns

#artists #else #had #i #i can

This image of wanting to be an artist - that I would in some way become an artist -was very strong. I knew for a long, long time that that's what I would be. But nothing I ever did seemed to bring me any nearer to the condition of being an artist. And I didn't know how to do it. ↗

— Jasper Johns

#artist #become #being #bring #condition

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

It's true. In America, you can reinvent yourself at any turn. And, you know, if things aren't going well for you in life, everyone says, change, become someone different. ↗

— Adam Johnson

#any #become #change #different #everyone

I figure if I have one false start every ten or 12 years that I've been running, I probably won't false start again during my career. ↗

— Allen Johnson

#been #career #during #every #false

Slavery exists. It is black in the South, and white in the North. ↗

— Andrew Johnson

#exists #north #slavery #south #white