"In some recent works he suggests the art of his neighbors, the Northwest Indians. These Indians have long known what Graves knows: the transcendent experience that is given to him who identifies himself with the "outside," dissolving the ego in the equation, among others, bird-man". . .
John Cage on Morris Graves
"Our world in the Far West. I lived in a remote and extremely quiet part of the state of Washington. It was all stony hills, scrubby forests, and mountains that deflected every sound. You could hear the cattle, or a dog barking, from a great distance. The sound carried clearly, intensely. Living alone in that forest - kerosene lights, lamps after dark - you spent a lot of time outside, just listening and hearing what happened in the night - the forest creatures. That is the reason I painted this, because I couldn't identify certain sounds, and so any sound I could hear I paid intense attention to, and then quizzically and playfully tried to imagine what creature made the sound. I tried to paint a line of bird song. And there were some other sounds - surf that I tried to paint".
Morris Graves
"I paint to evolve a changing language of symbols, a language with which to remark upon the qualities of our mysterious capacities which direct us toward ultimate reality. I paint to rest from the phenomena of the external
world - to pronounce it - and to make notations of its essences with which to verify the inner eye".
Morris Graves
"In the intense isolation the Yoga mandala blooms".
Morris Graves
