Select quotes from “Life After Art” by Matt Appling.
(As a young child) “Creating just made you incredibly, unabashedly happy, fulfilled, and satisfied… That moment in time so long ago was the freest you have ever been in your entire life.” (p. 23)
“Somewhere along the way children learn that failure is something to be feared, rather than to be learned from and embraced.” (p. 113)
“Fear of failure looms over everyone in some way. Somewhere in your life, you are holding back, hiding yourself from others, despite what you want to do. You want to do something fun. You want to share with others. You want to be generous with yourself. But you perceive the consequences of failure to be too great. So you become a self-fulfilling prophecy and never try.” (p. 117)
“Fear wants to rob you and me of the joy of doing the things we were created to do.” (p. 122)
“As we grow up, we should have learned to discern which real life goals are attainable and which are not.” (p. 120)
“You are a creator… [meant to create beauty]… make up a great story and live it… A little bit of beauty can change everything.” (pp. 132, 136-139)
“But it is our foolish, scientific, modern minds that look past the beauty, literary grace and variety of the Bible, the mystery of the gospel, the majesty of God’s revelation, and demand that it all function as a science text book… We are stripping all the beauty out of the Bible and demanding that it provide us with a formula instead of faith.” (p. 63)
“Great art has always needed wealthy benefactors.” (p. 71)
