At the center of all art is something that is alive

I’m really lovin’ Lynda Barry’s book What It Is.

“When I was little… I would hold myself as still as I could and make my eyes like a toy’s eyes that don’t movce and I would wait. I would wait for the other things in the room to forget about me and begin to move…I knew I had to be patient and wait for a very long time…I believed there was another world that would show itself to me in the smallest ways. The gray kitten in the picture by my bed would accidentally blink his eyes. The girl in the picture would breathe….Something can only become an illusion after disillusionment. Before that, it is something real. But what caused the disillusionment?…What is an Image? At the center of everything we call ‘the arts’ and children call ‘play,’ is something which seems somehow alive.”