But What Does It Mean?!

We’ve all done it.
Stood in front of a famous painting in a gallery, heart sinking, quietly thinking:
“Is it just me? I don’t get it.”

This is just Emperor’s New Clothes.
There is no secret code. No “right” answer.
There is no it to get. How liberating is that?!

Rick Rubin puts it perfectly:

“The goal of art isn’t to attain perfection. The goal is to share who we are and how we see the world. Artists allow us to see what we are unable to see, but somehow already know. It may be a view of the world different from our own—or one so close it seems miraculous.”

He goes on to say that even the artist doesn’t need to know what their work means. The process itself reflects how we move through the world. Meaning is already baked into the doing.

Which means:
Artists can relax.
Viewers can relax.

You don’t have to decode it. You don’t have to understand it. You just have to feel it.

One person might see joy in a painting, another might feel sadness. Both are right. Neither are wrong.

If a painting – or a sculpture, a poem, a piece of music – feels something in you, then it’s already done its job.

You don’t need to “get” art.
You just need to let it get to you.

Now we can all relax.