“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

He believed that his creativity was highly specifically oriented to its artistic expression only. [...] He believed that often creativity expressed itself at the expense of other portions of the self, and that if it were allowed to spill over the edges (with gestures) from artistic productivity into normal living, then it would lead to all kinds of disruptive activity. [...]

Because of his cultural beliefs, he was also determined that his “womanly nature” would not impede his progress as a writer, or yours as an artist. He considered it his duty to help you succeed as an artist, believing fervently that such was your primary desire.

Using the art form, the artist in a strange way broke through line, destroyed what would seem to be the literal continuity of the objective shape. [...]

At its poorest, communication between the viewer and the painting was lost, for a poor artist could not work that magic with lines or colors. [...]

[...] She said Seth had considered that an artist could do, say, five paintings; each with different symbols but all with the same basic meaning. [...]

[...] If you were an accomplished artist in many fields, you could translate a given feeling into a painting. [...]

[...] The empty envelope used as object was mailed to me last May 26,1966, by an old friend, Wendell Crowley, and contained a letter detailing a reunion of a group of friends, all artists, that Wendell and I worked with in 1941-43. [...]

[...] But also, negative, meaning pictures, is called to mind because Wendell’s letter deals with a group of artists who worked together in a studio, drawing comic strips, in 1941-3. In addition I personally have a studio here in the apartment, and the envelope used as object was kept in this studio. [...]

[...] As stated, the object contained a letter describing the reunion of perhaps half a dozen artists who worked together in the early 1940’s. The reunion was attended by the writer of the letter. [...]

(In any event travel by various modes from a cluster of surrounding towns in that area would have been necessary for the artists attending the reunion.

[...] Now Mr. Markle, a wealthy businessman, also had strong artistic abilities. [...] His artistic leanings caused him to choose real estate people who had latent artistic abilities of their own.

[...] Again, the official mind says that it was a coincidence that this couple were, in their way, artistically inclined, enjoyed painting and writing, free-lanced, and still lived in an apartment after some years of marriage — and that the man was relatively quiet in contrast to the woman (with amusement). Yet again probabilities merge, for the woman could well have been a writer, the man an artist; and seeing Ruburt and Joseph, they related with other probabilities inherent in their own natures.

[...] There are more “coincidences” involved than those Seth described tonight, none of them consciously known to Jane and me before the Sayre adventure: Mr. Markle is in a nursing home but a few miles from where we live in Elmira, and my mother spent her last days in a similar home less than 15 miles away; one of Mr. Markle’s children lives in Elmira, and is connected with a store Jane and I have visited; Mr. Johnson, of the real estate couple that conducted us about in Sayre, did sign painting and truck lettering as a younger man, as I did; he and I had several mutual acquaintances in Sayre, among them an older artist of some reputation — and now deceased — that we had known in our high school days; and so forth.

[...] What does the artist think of the subject matter? What are the artist’s standards of excellence?

The artist’s standard of excellence is often the necessity of keeping his job, and he has to keep his job because he fears he is not after all a true artist, or he would be painting a great painting. [...]

[...] I “drew” a rough analogy with painting (to make a pun): The artist may start working on a blank canvas, yet each physical brush stroke he or she delineates is built upon inner knowledge and experience; in the painting these qualities are objectified in new combinations, which in turn add further to the artist’s conscious comprehension. And when the painting is finished, the artist contemplates a new reality of his or her own creation.

[...] What most artists do not realize is that the self is the first creation. [...]

The time that any artistic creator is involved with follows earth’s own time, however. [...] If you are a writer or an artist, then it seems that you must produce so many paintings or books or whatever as, say, an automobile worker must process so many pieces of the overall car chassis. [...]

[...]

[...] I said that the artistic creator operates in the time of the seasons and so forth, in a kind of natural time — but that natural time is far different than you suppose. [...]

[...] This may work when manuscripts are being typed, and so much physical labor is involved, but overall you are using the “wrong” approach to time, particularly for any creative artist. [...]

[...] Your own ideas concerning the artist in society being poor, mistreated and at the mercy of others—now this is a core belief of yours that you consider a truth, and the nature of reality.

[...] The artist was not physical—simply put, a thumbnail description.

(9:50.) Most artists, painters now, are lost, so to speak, in the moment or moments of the painting’s creation. [...] Most artist, painters, do not feel the need, then, to “later” examine the moments of creativity themselves, nor to form still another subjective platform from which to examine the creative process.

[...] The creative artist can be in somewhat of a quandary, according to his beliefs, for he wants to preserve the precious moment, the fleeting thought, the daffodils, the perceived insights. [...]

The creative artist can be afraid of letting himself go completely in his life, for fear that he will become so involved that he will forget to stand apart, to look or to listen. [...]

[...] Each living self-artist however tries to create the inner self in the material world, and each such portrait is indeed unique.

[...] When you look at the great world picture before you in space and time, look at it as you would a multidimensional worldscape, painted by some artist who was all of the great masters in one; and behind the scenes of destruction and conflict, feel the great energy that in itself denies the destruction that is in that case so cleverly depicted.

[...] When you think of leaving you come face to face with the same conflict, for she wanted you to succeed as a commercial artist.

[...] (Like Artistic Card Company.

[...] You will also be astounded at the amount of work that will be produced, and is now latently in production, now that he sees that he can be artistically creative in his terms, mix and match the psychic and the creative (dash)—designations. These are still somewhat (underlined) separate to him, yet his ideas of doing good, being right, creating artistically, are now combining.

[...] Your beliefs, that artists and writers were poor, were quite conscious. [...]

[...] When an artist is painting a landscape, he might unconsciously compare hundreds of landscapes viewed in the past in multitudinous, seemingly forgotten hues that splashed upon the grass or trees, or as he seeks for a new creative combination. [...]

If you believe in the laws of cause and effect, as accepted, or in the laws of polarity, as accepted (and explained in a letter we received today), then you will be bound by those laws, for they will represent your artistic technique. [...]

Again, the writer or the artist also brings more into his work than the simple ability to write or paint. [...]

[...] Intuitively any real artist feels the spirit within matter, and unconsciously at least tries to portray it. [...] Your friend Larry (Herschaft) was quite perceptive, and your Dialogue sketches and the rock (face) show on your part a growth qualitatively of artistic understanding, and technique used to the service of inner realities.

(I don’t. This hasn’t really been a point with me, although at times I would get mad at Artistic for at least not offering me something more. [...]

(All of this is very acute artistic information, and embodies the use of good technique even today. [...]

(In those days, tubes for paints did not exist—all color had to be prepared fresh each day by the artist or assistants, from dry pigment. [...]

[...] As gifts for me because of my interest in their great creativity, Jane “tuned into”, on her own and without Seth, excellent books on the artist Paul Cézanne in 1977 and on the philosopher William James in 1978. [...]

[...] Great artists by their very works demonstrate other attributes latent in the race as a whole. [...]

You would have an individual who displayed within himself [or herself] all of those great abilities known to the race, fulfilled according to his own unique temper — the artist, mathematician, athlete, the inventor — all the extraordinary qualities of creaturedom; the emotional realities would be used to their capacity, and any of the racial qualities or characteristics of the species would be given their complete freedom.

When an artist paints a painting, you can look at the painting and say, “Ah, the artist was in a certain frame of mind” or: “Look at the dull colors and the dreary landscape” or: “Look at the wild colors and the fantastic forms” or: “See, there is no form and yet there is marvelous vitality.” ...And so are each of you artists and you create the world that you know. [...]

[...] And it does not make any great difference whether I get this particular job or not—for if I do not get it, tomorrow I shall be an artist. And I shall call up and make an appointment as an artist—but I shall be free in whatever I do—and spontaneous. [...]

The artist portion became outraged, so that the better husband you were, in that regard, the poorer it seemed the artist became—but (louder) at least you were seen to leave the house every day, as a good man should (with sly amusement). [...]

In many past societies, soothsayers, dream experts, poets and artists were the most revered members, for they constantly replenished man’s creative abilities, allowed him to see his position within society and in the natural world with fresh eyes. [...]

To be a good male in that family’s eyes, it seemed you had to be the less an artist or the less a thinker. [...]

3. I feel that I am such an artist. [...] Indeed, I often saw the former with a clearer vision, but my early training and work as a commercial artist, beginning in New York City in 1939, conditioned me to believe that the artist was supposed to deal only with what he could “see” objectively.

Many artists unknowingly paint portraits of their simultaneous selves.³  Many mothers find themselves feeling younger than their offspring at times, or about to call some of their children by different names. [...]

[...] Now, futilely, I wonder why I didn’t try painting images from my dreams at a much earlier age; and why one so seldom hears about other artists doing the same thing. I don’t personally know any other artist working with dreams this way.

[...] You always thought (underlined twice) that your artistic talent should be enough. [...]