The objective of painting a picture is not to make a picture - however unreasonable that may sound. The picture . . . is a by-product and may be useful, valuable, interesting as a sign of what has past. The objective, which is back of every true work of art, is the attainment of a state of being, a state of high functioning, a more than ordinary moment of existence. In such moments activity is inevitable, and whether this activity is with brush, pen, chisel, or tongue, its result is but a by-product of that state, a trace, the footprint of the state.

Robert Henri “The Art Spirit”