Thoughts on Art

Barbara Lipkin

May 09, 2026

As a life-long reader and writer, I jumped at the chance to join a book club formed to read and discuss Nobel Prize winning literature. After giving it two tries, I’ve decided that this just isn’t for me. Maybe I’m naive or unsophisticated but it’s always been my opinion that writing is supposed to be lucid, constructed in such a way as to be able to convey ideas clearly and in an organized manner. But my experience reading some of these books and poems has shown me that for some reason, people who write prose or poetry that is convoluted, obtuse, obscure, pretentious and impenetrable seem to garner the most applause.

One of the members opined that artists are simply trying to express their own thoughts, without regard for an eventual reader. But as a painter and writer myself, I know that if my only aim was to express my thoughts and feelings, I’d just keep a diary. The fact that I put my work “out there” for the public indicates that I expect and hope that what I have to say will be experienced and appreciated by others. To that end, I try to make my writing clear. Not simple, necessarily. I, too, am fond of imagery and metaphor, but when I use those devices, I try to make sure they are truly enhancing the writing, not just trying to impress and/or obscure. With my painting, too, although I often create abstract works, I try to use color and pattern to express mood and feelings, not simply smear paint on a canvas at random, paying no attention to use of color or design. So if art and writing are meant to express the creator’s ideas, they must be presented in a coherent enough way to be able to do so. A novel, essay or poem shouldn’t be so obscure that the only way one could attempt to make sense of it is to analyze it word by word. Where is the joy in that? Where is the meaning, emotion, recognition and discovery?

So I guess Nobel Prize winners will just have to get along without my patronage. If others enjoy reading their work, more power to them. I have other things to do.