Louise Nevelson (September 23, 1899 – April 17, 1988) was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures.
When you put things together, things that other people have thrown out, you’re really bringing them to life – a spiritual life that surpasses the life for which they were originally created.
No matter how individual we humans are, we are a composite of everything we are aware of. We are a mirror of our times.
Early in school, they called me 'the artist. ' When teachers wanted things painted, they called upon me, they called upon 'the artist. ' I am not saying that I learned my name, animals can learn their names, I am saying that they learned it.
I feel totally female. I didn't compete with men and I don't want to look like a man! I love being a lady and dressing up and masquerading and wearing all the fineries. I'm breaking down the idea that the artist has to look poor, with berets.
And I saw darkness for weeks. It never dawned on me that I could come out of it, but you heal. Nature heals you, and you do come out of it. All of a sudden I saw a crack of light. . . then all of a sudden I saw another crack of light. Then I saw forms in the light. And I recognized that there was no darkness, that in darkness there'll always be light.
My husband's family was terribly refined. Within their circle you could know Beethoven, but God forbid if you were Beethoven.
I still want to do my work. I still want to do my livingness. And I have lived. I have been fulfilled. I recognized what I had, and I never sold it short. And I ain't through yet.
I see no reason why I should tickle stones or waste time on polishing bronze.
I'm a work horse. I like to work. I always did. I think that there is such a thing as energy, creation overflowing. And I always felt that I have this great energy and it was bound to sort of burst at the seams, so that my work automatically took its place with a mind like mine. I've never had a day when I didn't want to work. I've never had a day like that. And I knew that a day I took away from the work did not make me too happy. I just feel that I'm in tune with the right vibrations in the universe when I'm in the process of working. . . . In my studio I'm as happy as a cow in her stall.
Most of us have to be transplanted before we blossom.
I believe that the physical is the geography of the being.
True strength is delicate.
I think most artists create out of despair. The very nature of creation is not a performing glory on the outside, it's a painful, difficult search within.
It's a hell of a thing to be born, and if you're born you're at least entitled to your own self.