Exploring Art Quotes

In an intsagram link, instagram.com/p/79BNuDDPmb/, Salvador Dali says "Because I am too intelligent to be a good painter.  To be a good painter you must be a bit stupid"  My art teacher asked my Grade 12 art class to expand on this quote, and explain what we think Mr. Dali means by it. 

Just on a separate note, I actually Googled Salvador Dali because I wanted to know more about who he was, and he defiantly is a good painter (in my opinion).  His artwork is super original and very beautiful. He paints common images in different contexts than they would usually be seen.  He mixes animate with inanimate objects and its really appealing to the eye.  But, anyways, back to the quote.

I don't think Salvador actually meant you must be stupid to be a good artist.  I think he meant you must be kind of oblivious.  When making art, you can't think of every little thing.  You can't focus on every detail and you can't worry about if people will take your art the right way.  You have to stop thinking for a while, a sense of melancholy or anger or joy or fear must wash over one in order for 'art' to become true art.  You must be oblivious to the world and let your feelings, your dreams, your nightmares prevail, and posses the paintbrush, or pencil, and let that part of you draw what you truly feel.  Good painters can be intelligent, but overthinking artwork will leave the artist in a headache and an un-meaningful mess of colors on a canvas. 

Art can not always be explained.  Sometimes 'intelligent' people try to explain everything. They may try to analyse every piece of artwork and give a meaning behind every brushstroke.  But, what we must remember is that art is not explained in one way, it can be perceived differently by different people and the way a painting makes one person feel may be different than that same painting makes me feel.  There is no way to explain why art does this to people, it just does. Art can be both confusing and make complete sense all at the same time.  It can be beautiful but hide an ugly truth or vise versa.  It is not important to 'get the right answer' when looking at art.  9/10 people may think of a piece one way, but be that one person that thinks of it differently.  To me, that is true intelligence.