https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkzNwAlvq_I

I was sketching a lot of dogs with flowing water and crying when I made this piece. It's a motif that's actually been with me for a really long time, and it's weird because it's never been conscious. As a viewer of art there's so many times when you look at motifs that an artist has and the modern art business books tend to make me feel like it's something that's planned. Sort of like when you do a book report and people are always asking you what the meaning of the book was supposed to be, but as an artist (especially if you want to have longevity) the meaning/thesis of it is not always what the artist is focused on.

When people analyze artwork, the story about an artwork and the artist always seems fixed and linear. "This happened so of course they made this artwork, and of course they wanted to send this particular message", but art tends to be more of an exploration, at least in my experience. It's easy to look back and say of course, but that never means you can predict what an artist is going to do next. Art is exploration.