An artwork is a tangible and sensible thing. Its language is visual not verbal. As a product art possesses an existence all its own. Like a child once born and raised, too soon an independent being, less and less is required of a parent.

Artists' explanatory statements about art are generally only partly about the art but usually more about hope and aspiration. Marcel Duchamp once thought about this great difficulty (a maker seeing things from the outside) and wrapped it in a useful concept, which he termed the coefficient of art. According to Duchamp the coefficient of art produces a sum which never adds up. The coefficient represents the difference between what is intended by the artist and expressed by the artwork and what is expressed by the artwork but not intended by the artist. Much is lost though much is also gained in the transition from artist idea to art actuality. New meanings are accrued which have nothing to do with an artist's ideas or original intentions.

Handling materials is an artist’s proper task. Delight is in the sweet smell of paint or ink, the sight of flying sawdust, the clang of metal, the sound of tumbling lumber or tearing canvas, the pleasant resistance of soft clay, the whir of a printer, or the click of a shutter. Eventually, every work will stand or fall on its own merit.