Aphorisms for Artists by Walter Darby Bannard

Aphorism #93

Just paint.

When some aristocrat asked him to write a piece of dinner music, Mozart willingly dashed off a divertimento. It may have been written quickly for fast money in an easy key, with a viola part kept simple to fit the aristocrat’s limited talents. But it was great music because Mozart wrote it.

Art flows much more easily when you are not worrying why you are making it, whether someone will like it, or how it fits in with what is out there in the art world. As Yogi Berra said, “You can’t hit and think at the same time.”

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