The basis of artistic creation is not what is, but what might be; not the real, but the possible. Artists create according to the same principles as nature, but they apply them to individual entities, while nature, to use a Goethean expression, thinks nothing of individual things. She is always building and destroying, because she wants to achieve perfection, not in the individual thing, but in the whole.

Art as Spiritual Activity: Rudolf Steiner's Contribution to the Visual Arts (ed. SteinerBooks, 1998) - ISBN: 9780880103961