AUTHOR: MARIA FULLAONDO

Inspiration, revelation, fantasy, imagination, oracle, epiphany, vision, aha or eureka moment, omen, af􀏐latus, satori, genius, brainwave, and talent—these are some of the cryptic terms and concepts often used by all types of creators in the visual realm when asked to explain or describe their creative processes. It remains unclear if these typical yet enigmatic responses are thoughtless or deliberate; if they respond to an authentic lack of understanding of the creative processes or to a sophisticated defensive strategy of artists’ most valuable secret; if they use silence to increase the magnetic attractiveness of the unknown or purposefully maintain an openness to the interpretation of their work. Regardless, the truth is that visual creators reveal very little about how they generate their work. 

“If I could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint.”
—Edward Hopper (1882-1967)

“Colors of rhetoric are changes, deviations, disorders, distortions, transgressions, departures, conflicts, dysfunctions, or violations of any element of verbal language.”

Magritte once warned us of the deception concealed within images, thus questioning the credibility of such portrayals, associating this with language. Because figurative images do not suffice on their own, certain strategies must be resorted to by their creators in order to convey intended messages. However, this does not mean they contain outright falsehoods or deception, and even less so betrayal; instead we must learn to use certain procedures to establish an effective form of communication with them. These consist of a two-fold process of encoding and decoding, given that every representation is a visual code that must be known and recognized by both sender and receiver.

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