I collected pictures and I drew pictures and I looked at the pictures by myself. And because no one else ever saw them, the pictures were perfect and true. They were alive.
Interpretation
Art can be a deeply personal experience when created in solitude, leading to a sense of authenticity and truth.
In this quote, Helen Oyeyemi reflects on the intimate relationship between the artist and their work when solitude is involved. The act of creating and observing art in privacy allows for an unfiltered expression that feels both perfect and alive, underscoring the idea that personal interpretation can result in a deeper connection to one's creations.
In practice
This quote could be used during an art exhibition to emphasize personal creativity.
Once you let people know anything about what you think, that's it, you're dead. Then they'll be jumping about in your mind, taking things out, holding them up to the light and killing them, yes, killing them, because thoughts are supposed to stay and grow in quiet, dark places, like butterflies in cocoons.
No translation can possibly be perfect. Every production and every performance is a different path up the mountain, and nobody ever makes it all the way to the summit.
Writing is a deep-sea dive. You need hours just to get into it: down, down, down. If you're called back to the surface every couple of minutes by an email, you can't ever get back down. I have a great friend who became a Twitterer and he says he hasn't written anything for a year.
I need to go where people are serious about acting.
The body is your instrument in dance, but your art is outside that creature, the body.
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand.
Joy is the zest that you get out of using your talents, your understanding, the totality of your being, for great aims...That's the kind of feeling that goes with creativity. That's why I say the courage to create. Creation does not come out of simply what you're born with. That must be united with your courage, both of which cause anxiety, but also great joy.
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