Grandma Moses

Anna Mary Robertson Moses (7 September 1860 – 13 December 1961), more famous by her nickname "Grandma Moses", was a renowned American folk artist.

Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.

Quotes

I'll get an inspiration and start painting; then I'll forget everything, everything except how things used to be and how to paint it so people will know how we used to live.

I look back on my life like a good day's work, it was done and I am satisfied with it. I was happy and contented, I knew nothing better and made the best out of what life offered.

• I look out the window sometimes to seek the color of the shadows and the different greens in the trees, but when I get ready to paint I just close my eyes and imagine a scene.
  • As quoted in Time magazine, Vol. 52 (1948)

• I'll get an inspiration and start painting; then I'll forget everything, everything except how things used to be and how to paint it so people will know how we used to live.
  • As quoted in her obituary in The New York Times (14 December 1961)

• Painting's not important. The important thing is keeping busy.
  • As quoted in New Leaves (1986) by Louise Matteoni

• I paint from the top down. From the sky, then the mountains, then the hills, then the houses, then the cattle, and then the people.
  • As quoted in Tampa Bay Magazine‎ (January/February 2008), p. 205

• A primitive artist is an amateur whose work sells.
  • As quoted in Grandma Moses, American Primitive : Forty Paintings (1947) by Otto Kallir

• If I hadn't started painting, I would have raised chickens.
  • As quoted in Grandma Moses, American Primitive : Forty Paintings (1947) by Otto Kallir

Grandma Moses : My Life's History (1951)

• I have written my life in small sketches, a little today, a little yesterday, as I have thought of it, as I remember all the things from childhood on through the years, good ones, and unpleasant ones, that is how they come out and that is how we have to take them.
  I look back on my life like a good day's work, it was done and I am satisfied with it. I was happy and contented, I knew nothing better and made the best out of what life offered. And life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.

Quotes about Moses

• The death of Grandma Moses removed a beloved figure from American life. The directness and vividness of her paintings restored a primitive freshness to our perception of the American scene. Both her work and her life helped our nation renew its pioneer heritage and recall its roots in the countryside and on the frontier. All Americans mourn her loss.
  • John F. Kennedy, as quoted in her obituary in The New York Times (14 December 1961)

• There emanates from her paintings a light-hearted optimism; the world she shows us is beautiful and it is good. You feel at home in all these pictures, and you know their meaning. The unrest and the neurotic insecurity of the present day make us inclined to enjoy the simple and affirmative outlook of Grandma Moses.
  • Unnamed German critic, as quoted in her obituary in The New York Times (14 December 1961)

• In person, Grandma Moses charmed wherever she went. A tiny, lively woman with mischievous gray eyes and a quick wit, she could be sharp-tongued with a sycophant and stern with an errant grandchild.
  • Unnamed author of her obituary in The New York Times (14 December 1961)

External links

• Grandma Moses Gallery at the Bennington Museum
• Grandma Moses at Galerie St. Etienne in New York
• Grandma Moses on IMDb
• Obituary in The New York Times (14 December 1961)
• Four paintings