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.
When you write, you want to get rid of the world, don’t you? Of course you do. When you’re writing, you’re creating your own worlds.
I think all art comes out of conflict. When I write I am always looking for the dramatic kernel of an event, the junctures of people's lives when they go in one direction, not another.
The art has to make it on its own, without explanations, and it’s the same for poetry. If the poem or the painting has to be explained, then it’s a failure in communication.
In the old days, people shared music; they didn't care who made it. A song would be owned by a village, and anyone could sing it, change the words, whatever. That is how humans treated music until the late 19th century. Now, with the Internet, we are going back to having tribal attitudes towards music.
Musicals are plays, but the last collaborator is your audience, so you've got to wait 'til the last collaborator comes in before you can complete the collaboration.
For my art, there is a common theme most of the time: it is using the things we can see to search for the world we cannot see.
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