Edmonia Lewia Quotes:
“There is nothing so beautiful as the free forest. To catch a fish when you are hungry, cut the boughs off a tree, make fire to roast it, and eat it in the open air, is the greatest of all luxuries. I would not stay a week pent up in cities, if it were not for my passion for Art.”
“I was … declared to be wild — they could do nothing with me. Often they said to me, ‘Here is your book, the book of Nature; come and study it.’
“I thought I knew everything when I came to Rome, but I soon found that I had everything to learn.”
Regarding how she became an artist: “well, it was a strange selection for a poor girl to make, wasn’t it? I suppose it was in me … I became almost crazy to make something like the thing which fascinated me.”
“I was practically driven to Rome in order to obtain the opportunities for art culture, and to find a social atmosphere where I was not constantly reminded of my color. The land of liberty had not room for a colored sculptor.”
“I am going back to Italy to do something for the race – something that will excite the admiration of the other races of the earth.”
“I shall never live in America.”
“The Good Spirit always sends me friends.”
― Edmonia Lewis
References
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