Clip: Episode 4 | 1m 32s | Video has closed captioning.
Celebrated artist Nathaniel Mary Quinn sits down with ballet dancer Misty Copeland to discuss the visions that inspire his artwork.
Aired: 07/19/23
So every piece I make first begins with a vision, it's like a mental picture that comes to me.
Every piece.
I have many visions.
I have visions of works that I've yet to make, that have been with me for years, but I haven't made those works yet because currently I am not proficient enough as an artist to make them.
-Okay.
-Have to wait until I become better.
-Do you have, like, just this amazing memory bank where you, like, kind of keep that in mind when you think about?
-Well, visions are born from how you feel.
-Mm-hmm.
-You don't forget how you feel.
-Okay.
-Visions are born from here, from the gut.
It's not -- It's organic, it's visceral.
So you don't forget that.
It's like in the fibers of my being.
I never forget my visions.
Now, I don't know what the visions are about, and I don't waste time trying to understand them either.
I just operate from a, like, a visceral response to them, and I am compelled to make them.
And then I make the work, and then I let the work speak to me.
The process has to be carried out within the context of being present.
So you have to remove excessive thinking and be at peace and at one with yourself in front of the canvas.
-Yeah.
-And it's like -- it's like a harmonious dance and I'm putting these things together and you go on based on how you feel.
And then when is done, the work speaks to me.
Oh, "Big Rabbit, Little Rabbit."
