Powerlessness

Anne Truitt, Daybook - The Journal of an Artist, First Scribner trade paperback edition October 2013.

Perhaps the human lesson is always submission. We have a choice: to rebel or to recognize our powerlessness while maintaining our faith. In my own case, the first choice is denied me. I simply haven't the energy. What rebellion is possible for me emerges as febrile depression. My preoccupation of how events should go has tricked me once more; I must try to open myself to the flow of cause and effect (of which I am such a small part) with a clean, trusting simplicity. Pg. 19

My Work Clears The Way Behind Me

Anne Truitt, Threshold: Language and Vision in the Art of Anne Truitt by Anne M. Wagner, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, 2013

~ Essay II, 1976
A person stands on the earth, subject to the events of being human. These events demand to be understood and, occasionally, to be withstood. My sculptures withstand, to hold within themselves parts of my experience for my own learning. Thus fixed for my contemplation, my experience is in the service of my understanding as it develops in time. My work clears the way behind me, so to speak, so I can advance in the light of its being, and this is a being which, despite my best efforts, evades my comprehension. In my work, I move from the unknown to the unknown, but with the sustenance of its company, its intimate nature strengthening my intent to hold to that most intimate nerve of myself, out of which the work has arisen, mysteriously.  Pg. 112