Having to say it out loud, having to explain what you are doing, forces you to be clear. You can’t just fumble through and get something and say “That’s what I meant to do all along”. That is the part I think about in my work: making sure that what I’m doing is really clear. Then it’s available, and those are the kinds of things you look for, in art, and this changes the structure of how you can think about art, and it’s there for you. And those are wonderful things when you are in their presence.
Bruce Nauman
This quote is from an episode of the show “Art in the Twenty-First Century” featuring the American artist Bruce Nauman. You can watch that episode online. He was drawing (no pun intended) a parallel between proof and clarity in mathematics, and clarity in art. I would extend the parallel to creative projects in general.
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