"I sometimes think my style is suggestive rather than direct. The reader must often use his imagination or lose the most subtle part of my thought."
— Ernest Hemingway
American Novelist
1899 - 1961
The writer and the artist should not tell everything. They should respect the intelligence of their readers and admirers. One important concept that my study of haiku has taught me is that the reader must bring something to the table. The artist's job is to suggest. The reader must discover the meaning in the writing or the painting. My writing like Hemingway's is often suggestive, not direct. Simple, not complex. My painting is even more suggestive and simple.
What this also means is that our state of mind when we read something impacts our response to what we read. It impacts our experience of what we read. Readers always bring something to the table. Some books should be read when we are young and others when we are more mature. Some books should be read again and again. Each time we read it, we find new meaning in the words because we are a new person. The same is true of painting, music, dance and theater.
