an artist is an artist

An artist is an artist only because of his exquisite sense of beauty, a sense which shows him intoxicating pleasures, but which at the same time implies and contains an equally exquisite sense of all deformities and all disproportion.  -Charles Baudelaire

Common sense tells us that the things of the earth exist only a little, and that true reality is only in dreams. -Baudelaire

How little remains of the man I once was, save the memory of him!  But remembering is only a new form of suffering.  -Baudelaire

The insatiable thirst for everything which lies beyond, and which life reveals, is the most living proof of our immortality. -Baudleaire

I have always loved Kenneth Patchen, both as a poet and an artist.  I can remember, long ago, how I used to see his hand-painted books in the used book store, at first out in the stacks, and later safely behind the counter.

I do wonder just like you about all these quotes.  What is that all about?  What does it have to do with the paintings one posts?...probably nothing.  It's just that the names pop into my head when I am looking at these paintings, so I have to go look at their things...but the best quotes are the ones I no longer remember, found when I first read them...