Why don’t we painters answer back?

The following is one of my favourite art stories, and it is possible that I have used it in a previous post.

A celebrated musician played his latest composition to a visiting friend. “That’s wonderful,” said the visitor, “but what does it mean?” The musician played it again.

The event which set me thinking today was some communication I’ve been having with a friend, whose response to something I had written indicated that probably he hadn’t actually read it. I made a couple of comments which suggested, gently, that maybe he ought to reconsider his remarks in the light of what I had actually written. In short, I answered back. Time will tell, of course, as to whether that has advanced the situation. The exchange did make me think, as I prepared dinner tonight, what might be the equivalent of a painter’s riposte? How do you “answer back” in paint? I guess that, like the musician, you just keep painting.

The point I’m getting at is that with any exchange involving language the medium itself can be used in order to correct misunderstandings or add information. Are we painters simply condemned to endure misunderstanding in silence, or are we compelled, if we want to be understood, to abandon the mode of expression in which we are most comfortable? I find that an interesting question, and one to which, at the moment, I don’t have an answer.

And now for something somewhat different, but relevant. Do you remember that song by Simon and Garfunkel At The Zoo? There’s a great line in it that came into my head in the garden this afternoon. “Orang-Utangs are sceptical of changes in their cages.” I was put in mind of this by the behaviour of our resident hedgehog. The current situation has meant that it has not always been possible to buy the same kind of food for the hedgehog. I’m now into the third brand since the lock-down started. Every time there is a change the wretched animal seems to sulk and is reluctant to take the new stuff. I can actually feel the vibes. “What do you call this muck then?” It will settle down …. that is, until I have to change the brand again. See: even hedgehogs get to answer back!