A Quote by John Lurie

The paintings usually start as abstracts and then I look at them and look at them, and like a Rorschach test, I try and see what it is. — © John Lurie
The paintings usually start as abstracts and then I look at them and look at them, and like a Rorschach test, I try and see what it is.
I look at my paintings for a very long time before letting them out of my studio. I like to get on the treadmill and look around at all of my paintings while I exercise. I try to stare them down to make them reveal their weaknesses. If they reveal weaknesses, they get repainted.
I suppose I could understand it if men had simply forgotten unicorns, but not to see them at all, to look at them and see something else — what do they look to one another, then? What do trees look like to them, or houses, or real horses, or their own children?
Elections are always a Rorschach test - people look at the results and see what they want to see.
I start out making my paintings for me. I don't see it as a form of communication. Until, of course, after they are done and I want people to see them. And want them to be recognized. But while I am making them I just try to get lost in them. Kind of like it's a prayer.
Can you design a Rorschach test that's going to make everyone feel something every time - and that looks like a Rorschach test? It's easy to show a picture of a kitten or a car accident. The question is, how abstract can you get and still get the audience to feel something when they don't know what's happening to them?
I make paintings, try to get others to look at them and hopefully buy them.
Too many people don't look at things objectively and try to see the facts; they instead look at them through their partisan lenses and try to figure out how to twist or spin them to fit their own 'side.'
History is a Rorschach test, people. What you see when you look at it tells you as much about yourself as it does about the past.
I think it's important to try to find the positives. Then, look at the things that you don't like and see if you can change them or not.
The most important thing in my life, and the thing I try to focus on, is to try not to live a life of cruelty. That means trying to make sure I look people in the eye when I meet them. Sometimes you jump in a taxi, or maybe you only have two minutes with someone, and you never see them again. I try to always look them in the eye and have a real experience of what it is to communicate with someone.
I've often tried to describe how memory works. I've suggested this to students, and told them to close their eyes and try to remember what I look like. Then I ask them if they remember what I look like. But when you open your eyes you will be surprised how different what you thought I looked like is to what I actually look like. Because the imagination is a different raw material from actual vision. Memory is very different from the thing itself.
We don't look at problems logically, we look at them emotionally. We look at them through the guts. We look at them as if we're doing a high school problem, like what is beautiful, what makes me recognized among my peers. We don't go and think about things. We, as a society, don't wish to engage in rational thought.
I just like art. I get pure pleasure from it. I have a lot of wonderful paintings, and every time I look at them I see something different.
Modern paintings often seem to have been made quickly, by comparison with the paintings of earlier centuries, and that seems to give us the license to look at them quickly - to consume them and move on.
I try not to have nerves. You have to be cold-blooded. You have to think, to look at the goalkeeper: how is he positioned? You study them, you know about them, even if there isn't always time, even if it's sometimes intuition. You look to see where he is.
When in doubt, wear a suit. Look at male politicians: you see them in a suit, and they look fine. But if you see a picture of them on the weekend or on vacation, there's a good chance they look terrible and unstylish.
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