Talking about one's own work

In 1962, when he was 64, the great Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte produced the painting The Domain Of Arnheim.  The title derives from a poem by Edgar Allan Poe which conjures up an  imaginary landscape.  Magritte apparently absorbed many of Poe's stories so it is argued by the author A. M. Hammacher that this left a residue in Magritte's mind.   But....

The Domain of Arnheim          Rene Magritte

There is another way to read this work which has little to do with Poe.  Magritte was the eldest of 3 boys and when he reached to age of 12, their mother (who suffered severe depression) went missing.  Nearly 2 weeks later, her body was found in a river some distance down stream from their house with her nightdress wrapped around her head.  So does this painting present us with the unreachable mother, having abandoned the nest?  
Magritte always denied this was the case.  He rarely talked about what happened to his mother, even to his wife Georgette.  All he would say was, "I thought about the painting, I planned it and did it and that is all there is to it".  Consciously, he may be telling the truth.  
No doubt he would have read the poem and decided to conjure up an imaginary landscape of his own.  A mountain in the shape of a bird would be entirely consistent with his oeuvre.  The ledge in the foreground was there to give the painting depth.  He must have decided to place something on the ledge as a counterpoint to the bird image.  A nest with eggs in it would seem to be the most appropriate.  So while his conscious self is making the these technical decisions, his unconscious self may be turning the clock back 50 years.   And this is why it can be difficult for artists to talk about their work.  They see one thing, their audience (especially those who know them) see something entirely different.

Motivations

Some years ago a friend asked me, "What is it with you and psychiatric hospitals?"  He was referring to the presence of abandoned psych hospitals in my paintings at the time.  What surprised me with this question was that he, like me, had studied at art school.  He obviously didn't understand the concept of metaphor, that is; my paintings may have been of psych hospitals, but they were not necessarily about them.

Rainy Day At Aradale                    Oil on canvas on board
2007

It is possible I see the abandoned hospital as a symptom of governments withdrawing from their responsibilities towards society, the end of the welfare state for instance.  Then again there may be a more fundamental, even personal reason for why these establishments resonate with me so powerfully.  Either way, it really doesn't matter.  The key issue is, to make these paintings succeed as works of art.