Weekly Quotation 1:

"Creativity takes courage."

-Henri Matisse: French painter, printmaker, sculptor, and draughtsman (also one of three founders of revolutionary movement of plastic arts along with Pablo Picasso and Marchel Duchamp)

In my opinion, this quotation by Matisse references two things: the inevitable failure that every artist will face and the risks of going into an artistic field as an occupation.  To be an artist, one has to accept that they will fail at something one point or another, whether it is on an assignment for school, a fashion collection, or a commission.  The artist learns from their mistakes more than their success (although both failure and success help an artist to grow).  By failing at something, an artist recognizes the process that they did to cause the failure and learn not to repeat it.  The second aspect of this quote relates to not only visual artists, but artists of creation as well, such as people involved in writing, theatre, and music.  The creative world is a tough place to make money to sustain oneself because instead of relying on doing a task that a higher authority put on you, the artist needs to create their own tasks and rely on their own being to produce a piece of art or work that will sell, whether it is for the artist or others such as a commissioner or corporation.

Sampling of Matisse's work:
The Green Line, oil on canvas. 1905.