Does anyone know who said this:

"I want my paintings to tear people in two. I want my paintings to heal people who have been torn in two. I want it to be the same painting."

Thanks!

The internet was not helpful with finding this quotation.
Google search results for phrase
Other results

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

But I found loads of these....
"I want my paintings to be" quotations.... I found them interesting... so I thought I'd share them.

Each painting has its own beauty and character that is revealed by color which is what you see all over in nature. Also in our busy and complicated world I want my paintings to be a moment of peace and tranquility to the people who come in contact with my work.
http://www.angelfire.com/ga3/gtapias/stment.htm

I want my paintings to be contemplative. It has always been important to me that the viewer looks long and frequently at my painting. I aspire to the second look. I use formal methods that I respond to in hopes of achieving a response.
-- Ilania Kaplan
http://www.art.buffalo.edu/gallery/UB.gallery.GR/99.kaplan/

I want my paintings to move.
When I start to paint, the first thing I do is turn on music which makes me want to dance. I listen to anything from rock ‘n roll to country to soul to reggae. The important thing is that I can feel the movement. When the mood is right, I can lose myself in the painting....

...I want my painting to stand out in a room.
I want it to catch your eye as you turn your head.
I want it to draw you in and hold you there.
I want it to encourage you to come back over and over,
and always see something new.
-- GREG EVANS
http://www.evansart.com/greg_evans_-_about_the_artist.htm

I want my Paintings to speak for themselves.
Harry Gruenert
www.artistportfolio.net/ artist_page.php?artist_id=110&image_id=531

"I think that it is not necessary for a painting and its model to have the same color because they belong to two different worlds. People's appreciation of my paintings does not depend on their colors... My style of painting is unique. I want my paintings to be different from other painters' works, be they Chinese ancient painters or European or American painters..."
-Wu Meng Chun, 1999
http://www.artscenechina.com/intro/wumengchun.htm

"I want my paintings to look alive
- so you feel you can step right into it and get lost."
Jim Miller
http://www.jimmillergallery.com/about.html

In my landscape paintings I paint the harmony I sense in nature. I want my paintings to give the viewer a feeling of spiritual elevation, the same way nature gives man this feeling of oneness or wholeness, of belonging. The color shape relationships I have chosen express this feeling in the painting. Sometimes I work directly from nature, but most of the time I work from memory and imagination. When that wonderful moment of “experience with nature” that spiritual space shows up...the painting is completed. It’s been said “My paintings possess a highly sophisticated sense of the poetic and spiritual.
-- Tenneson-McCarty, Janet
http://www.edgewoodorchard.com/content/index.cfm?fuseaction=bio&key=96

"I paint because I must. When executing a work of art I try to capture the essence of the subject. I want my paintings to speak to the viewer and I like to take my viewers to a realm of energy, subtlety and tranquility in my landscapes and still lifes.
-- Bobbie Lynch
http://www.mrsfa.com/lynch/

"I want my paintings to have magic so that romance can happen, so people will feel good,"
-- Barry White
http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/drohojowska-philp/drohojowska-philp7-12-00.asp

The kind of abstract figuration I work with informs my study of nature and human nature. I want my paintings to challenge our understanding of our place in the world, and reimagine it. Can abstract painting do that? It’s worth trying. Are ideas jumping-off points for a painter or do they remain within the work and inform the work?
-- Terri Rolland
http://www.lindadurham.com/artists/rolland/interview.html

Plenty more here:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22I+want+my+paintings+to%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N

I asked Jesus, "How much do you love me?".
Jesus answered, "This much"
as He stretched His arms and died on the cross for me.
-- Unknown, (Author / Orator unknown or unconfirmed) Full story here

Behind every painting is a secret and inexplicable desire. Behind mine is this:
I want to make a painting that can tear a person in two. I want to make a painting that can make a person who has been torn in two whole again. I want them to be the same painting.
~ Artist's Statement
Clayton F. Merrell
http://www-art.cfa.cmu.edu/merrell/artist's%20statement

Thanks so much for your prompt reply! I agree -- this was difficult to find on the Internet. Here's the other response I received:

Artist's Statement by Clayton F. Merrell

Behind every painting is a secret and inexplicable desire. Behind mine is this:
I want to make a painting that can tear a person in two. I want to make a painting that can make a person who has been torn in two whole again. I want them to be the same painting.
~ Artist's Statement
Clayton F. Merrell
http://www-art.cfa.cmu.edu/merrell/artist's%20statement

This appears to be it!

Great detective work! Thanks so much!