Gerhard Richter says that when he's creating art, as he goes along he feels less and less free until there's nothing he can do- it gets harder and harder, and then his painting's done. Piet Mondrian wrote, "...offering him a freedom of choice... present[s] the artist with one of the most difficult problems. And the closer he approaches the ultimate consequence of his art the more difficult is his task."
So deciding what to do with absolute freedom is difficult. But choosing what to do when there's no freedom, that's even more so. These two were talking about non-figurative art of course, but that only means the realm of pure composition- graphic design is just that, plus copy and illustration. Which sets me thinking about the way I've been approaching this lately, the abstractification of the poem or story into some symbol itself, maybe parallel, maybe perpendicular.
Thinking on the symbolism of my own art then on a broader sense (so, he's trying in vain to gnaw off his past, but he's a Skinner box, so...?), I realize, maybe symbolism is... easy. Not the hard part of art. It's the part that engages the audience, so it's the hard part for them, but after the art's finished its creation, out of the author's hands and ready to connect from one mind to another.
But it's one of the most natural parts of art, to create.
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