Jenny Holzer
It's necessary to start most work alone. But I'm tickled to death when I can pull somebody in or join someone, whether it's borrowing poetry or traveling with an associate.Collection: Alone
The most profound things are inexpressible.
I used language because I wanted to offer content that people - not necessarily art people - could understand.
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
Protect me from what I want.
I wanted to support things that are helpful to people and maybe bash what I think is dangerous. So I switched from being everybody to being myself.
One of the glories and terrors of working in public is that you do see if your output means anything to anyone.
I moved to New York in the 1970s and started writing when I was at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program.
Expiring for love is beautiful but stupid.
The epiphany for me was that I wasn't a writer, and I had to do something with these texts. I put them in the streets as posters.
I'd paint long strips of canvas and abandon them on the beach, or put bread out in geometric patterns for the pigeons downtown. I wanted people to find something nice and intriguing to puzzle over. Then I'd go back to see if the things were still there, or if anyone would notice.
I'm always trying to bring unusual content to a different audience - a non-art-world audience.
One thing that changed when I moved upstate was that I became interested in different materials. I started making the stone benches because I was seeing rocks.
I really like doing the laundry, because I succeed at it. But I loathe putting it away. It is already clean.
I began to see that the short texts I was writing were poster material.
Sloppy thinking gets worse over time.
I get up about four times a night and go back to sleep, or not. Then I swill tea around 8 a.m. I answer e-mail, while I stall thinking about whatever scares me.
I suspect you've noticed that making art can be lonely.
I'd been doing projects outdoors for the public. I made pigeons eat geometry by putting bread out in rhomboids and triangles. I don't know if this activity made sense, but the work was available.
So much of art-making is about reducing things to the essentials, so I don't feel particularly crippled by this. I don't want it to look natural because then I would be making a documentary film.
Well, I think in trying to make life seem real enough that one is moved to do something about the more atrocious things. By going really far afield into a completely fake world, maybe there's a chance to make things resonant somehow - or in this case, truly terrifying. To make it as bad as the real stuff that's happening.
I am not free because I can be exploded anytime.
On the worst days, I don't feel like an artist.
The desperate things seem to require attention, the lovely things seem to elicit celebration. If I had to choose, I would go to the awful in the hope that doing something could yield a happier result.
That's the test of street art - to see if anybody stopped. People would cross out ones they didn't like and would star others. I liked that people would engage with them.
I seldom have my stuff up unless I'm testing it. If I'm worrying about a painting, I put it up and see if I detest it quickly or slowly. Otherwise I have things by other artists.
I think of a piece, and then people who are competent fabricate it. But lately I've started finger painting, which probably should be a joke but isn't!
It can be kind of gruesome at times, making things alone.
Company makes my day.
I wanted to be an abstract painter, but I was rotten at it.
It's fun wandering around other people's minds.
When my daughter was young, she thought all electronic signs were mine.
You are a victim of the rules you live by.Collection: Victim
At times inactivity is preferable to mindless functioning.Collection: Thrive
All things are delicately interconnected.Collection: Art
Abuse of power comes as no surpriseCollection: Abuse
If you have many desires your life will be interesting.Collection: Art
TRYING TO BE POPULAR IN HIGH SCHOOL IS LIKE TRYING TO BE MAYOR OF A CITY THAT WON'T EXIST IN FOUR YEARS.Collection: School
My arrogance knows no bounds and I will make no peace today, and you should be so lucky to find a woman like me.Collection: Arrogance
A sense of duty imprisons you.Collection: Ambition
It is in your self-interest to find a way to be very tender.Collection: Self
Enjoy yourself because you can't change anything anywayCollection: Advice
Fear is the most elegant weapon, your hands are never messyCollection: Hands
Romantic love was invented to manipulate womenCollection: Romantic Love
Turn soft and lovely any time you have a chanceCollection: Lovely
THERE IS A PERIOD WHEN IT IS CLEAR THAT YOU HAVE GONE WRONG BUT YOU CONTINUE. SOMETIMES THERE IS A LUXURIOUS AMOUNT OF TIME BEFORE ANYTHING BAD HAPPENS.Collection: Gone
Alienation produces eccentrics or revolutionaries.Collection: Outsiders
Slipping into madness is good for the sake of comparisonCollection: Sake
Ensure that your life stays in flux.Collection: Art