Nick Willing

Well, in art, a painting or a work of art works on such a different level that it cannot be spoken about or explained with words sufficiently.

Artists, there are some artists, my dad was one, could talk about art very, very well.

The really great artists, I think, aren't good at talking about their work.

My mother was terrible.

She would just screw up her face and look at you and expect you to know and understand what's going on anyway in the picture, because the picture is the language.

And if you're having to translate it into a different language, it doesn't work the same way, you see.

And also she had roots in surrealism.

She was fascinated in the 50s and 60s with surrealism and tapping into the unconscious and trying to understand and expose what's going on inside you through the pictures, you see?

So if there is a sense that you're explaining the picture through understanding the secret, see, that's why it's a secret.

She would want it to remain a secret so that you understand the picture through your own secrets.

That's what she would say.

She would say, people should come and look at my pictures and invent their own stories because the picture is also maybe about them.

I don't know.

I don't know who they are, but that's how I look at pictures.

I see a Max Ernst or, you know, a Goya.

I don't know what's happening in their lives at that moment.

I don't care because I'm responding to this picture through my life.

So that's true.

But there's a but.

And that is that there is also an added value.