藝術家如何檢驗自己的創作？馬克·夏加爾 (Marc Chagall，1887-1985)的啟示

每當我完成一幅畫，我就將它與造物主的創造之物並列觀看去檢驗，也許是岩石、花朵、樹枝，或者我的手...如果我的創作與這些渾然天成的鬼斧神工相比不顯得遜色，也許就算是真正的藝術；而如果明顯的衝突浮現，就表明這幅作品並不成功。When I am finishing a picture, I hold some God-made object up to it - a rock, a flower, the branch of a tree or my hand - as a final test. If the painting stands up beside a thing man cannot make, the painting is authentic. If theres a clash between the two, its bad art.

當心靈主宰我的創作，我的意圖最終可以被充分地表達。而當理性主導，我往往一無所獲。藝術家必須不懼怕表達自我必須絕對地、毫無保留地保持真誠。只有如此。他才可能被廣泛接受。If I create with my heart almost all my intentions remain. If it is with the head - almost nothing. An artist must not fear to be himself, to express only himself. If he is absolutely and entirely sincere, what he says and does will be acceptable to others.

莫扎特並未創造什麼，他只是把自己靈魂深處繚繞的音樂記錄下來。Mozart never composed anything, ever! He copied what was written on his soul.

內心的世界才是現實存在，這也許比外在的世界更真實。All our interior world is reality, and that, perhaps, more so than our apparent world.

藝術家的尊嚴在於始終保持對世界之奇妙的警醒；如漫漫長夜中的守夜人，他以不同的方式自我刺激，以避免自己的敏銳感知被不斷侵擾的混沌睡眠所吞噬。The dignity of the artist lies in his duty of keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world. In this long vigil he often has to vary his methods of stimulation; but in this long vigil he is also himself striving against a continual tendency to sleep.
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