30 Days of Quotes About Life ~ Day 17 ~ Pablo Picasso

Day 17 ~

“Everything you can imagine is real.” 

~ Pablo Picasso


Ah, Picasso.

I am one of those people who could quite literally spend the entire day at the art museum. I marvel at the abilities of those who can create physically. On a good day, I might call myself crafty, but even that would be a stretch. I took art classes for years but my skills never evolved beyond the most basic, without regard for my attempts or desire.

He was a complicated person, a philanderer for lack of a better term. He was twice married, fathered four children by three women, only one of which he was married to. His works are some of the most adored and loved in the world. Guernica is the work of his that I studied in the most depth, from the perspective of an art student, as a history student and as a student with a Spanish teacher passionate about the culture.


Coming from someone with a body of work as large and as loved as his is, a quote like this one carries more weight. His imagination, something we have all been given access to through his creations.

He says that everything you can imagine is real, which, perhaps for a man like him, was truth. Artists live in a different world than the rest of us do, I think. Their vision is more fluid, less grounded in reality. More transient, less tangible, more possibilities, fewer constraints. They can create things that would never be real otherwise, a luxury for those of us lacking in those skills can only envy.

Art can evoke emotions from us. It can touch parts of our souls that we weren't even sure existed. It can speak to us in a way that words never could. Music is the same.

How much this applies to the rest of us, those who don't dwell in the place of limitless creation, I am not sure. There is certainly an argument to be made that we should set our goals high, dream big, work hard and all of those things, because that is often the only way that the unattainable can be brought closer to our grasp, but there are things that are certainly impossible and no amount of believing will make them appear.

I can't conjure things. I can't manifest them. Believing won't change that.

There are things I wish that I had those powers with, but I don't.

Thanks, Picasso. Now I want to try to paint again just so I can live in the world of possibilities....