I like it when my thoughts end up on canvas or paper. It's great if others like the result. It's even more fun when other people start telling me what they see in them, because it's usually not the same as what I see.

I think that's what art is all about - seeing your reality in a painting made by another person. I don't think you have to talk a lot about what you wanted to portray and why. Unless the painting is directly related to a story that you absolutely want to tell. In the end, it all comes down to one criterion - like it or not. Either your reality rings true in the painting you see, or it doesn't. And all the talk about the folds of the transcendent universe and the shivers of the soul is just a bit of a boast. It's much more simple than that - as my teacher once said, "I draw myself pictures and I feel good".  Telling stories is of course also important. Untold stories, like unpainted pictures, linger in the subconscious and gnaw like worms on an apple.

That's why, if you're an artist, it's much harder not to create, even if you don't have any fans. But if they do, then, oh, that's very flattering. Therefore, just as life is more of an exclamation than a noun, art is more of a necessity than a luxury. At least for me.