Born on April 19th

"In the field of mindfulness & peace, be present in this breath, for it is the only moment where life is actually happening."

"Peace is not the silence of the storm, but the calm center you maintain within yourself. As a creative innovator, this is the foundational truth I have observed."

"Let go of the weight of yesterday, and receive the clear canvas of this present day."

"In the field of creativity & art, to create is to take a leap of faith into the quiet canvas of your own imagination."

"Art is the expression of our deepest questions, painted in colors that words cannot reach. As a scientist & scholar, this is the foundational truth I have observed."

"Every act of creation begins with a willing heart and the courage to make a mistake."

"My work is a self-portrait of my mind, a prism of my convictions."

"An artist is attracted to certain kinds of form without knowing why. You adopt a position intuitively; only later do you attempt to rationalize or even justify it."

"Sketching is almost everything. It is the painter's identity, his style, his conviction, and then color is just a gift to the drawing."

"There's nothing more superficial to do than to paint a beautiful woman. The most beautiful portraits in art were of ugly women. If you paint Brigitte Bardot, it's a disaster. Sunsets, you have to stay away from sunsets. You paint a sunset, you are in great danger."

"I follow politics very closely. I read several newspapers every day."

"Before anything else, I started painting bulls and matadors. That was my initiation to paint."

"The only duty an artist has is in the quality of the art. There is no moral obligation to denounce. An artist confronted with a tremendous injustice sometimes feels inclined to say something. Denouncing the situation is the artist's choice."

"All the animals I've painted always have a relationship with man. I have been told that part of the knowledge of the human anatomy comes from animals."

"Expression without culture is flat. Many artists come out of art school and start doing things that don't last. They are audacious because of ignorance. They are irresponsible."

"Bullfights are a very cultural thing. I know many people think it's cruel, but so many things are cruel. Hunting, the electric chair, wars. These are all cruel things as well."

"Art should be an oasis: a place or refuge from the hardness of life."

"I love my country, and it hurts not to be able to see my country, as I did for so many years. I hope that I will one day be able to live in a peaceful Colombia."

"I have the sensation of doing something good for people, more than being a trendy artist or a successful artist."

"Bullfights have so much color. Not just the matador but also the bull, the arena, and the public. It's all very festive."

"In the '60s, I did many satirical portraits of dictators."

"I believe that it's better to have a conviction, believe strongly in something, and then the convictions create a style that reflects your mentality."

"I love art so much because of curiosity. At the start of a painting, I know 10 percent of what the painting will be, and then I have to improvise the whole thing."

"I had wanted to be a sculptor throughout life, but to do so, I had to stop painting."

"I often think about death, and it saddens me to leave this world and not be able to paint more. I love it so much."

"You paint what you know best; what you went through as a teenager and child. My world is the one I got to know in Medellin; I never paint anything else other than that."

"In a photo, you just do a click, but in art you have to put in so much energy. This concentration of energy and attention says something that other media cannot say."

"Art is important because when people start to forget, art reminds them what happened. Like 'Guernica.' People would not remember the tragedy of Guernica today if it were not for that painting."

"An artist is born like a priest is born. If they are born an artist, I would tell them art is not a game: it is something very serious which completely requires everything you have to give."

"Art is always an exaggeration in some sense; in color, in form, even in theme, etc... but it has always been this way. It is the same with the nature of some works by Giotto or Massacio, or the color of life as expressed by Van Gogh."