Jacqueline Humphries

"I think that painting is a medium of thought. As a material it doesn't just bend to your will, you have to interact with it, grapple with it. Painting is thinking in material, the pleasure involved in externalizing something that's internal. But one also has to deal with the history — everything that's ever been done in painting; and then there's everything that we bring to it as viewers, all our own expectations, our personal history etc. And there's memory — you're never just dealing with the painting in front of you, but with all other paintings whether you're conscious of them or not. There is an a priori situation, which is integral to its quality as medium. So, painting is a kind of consciousness that we interact with. The mechanics of how that works sort of defy description. It's an immersion, you're inside of it and it's inside of you. It's the world reflected in a mud puddle."

Jacqueline Humphries
http://www.lacan.com/frameXXII7.htm