Imagine that you are reading a written description of a picture, and it describes the image in minute detail …. the composition, brushwork, dimensions, colours etc. Everything is spelled out meticulously. Then you are given a chance to actually see the picture. Wouldn’t you expect that in this encounter with the real thing, you would see something that had been omitted from the description? Surely, seeing the original image would involve a feeling about the work that had not been stimulated by the description in words.
I have had a strange and unsatisfying experience with a piece I have just completed. In many respects it has turned out very well. Nevertheless, I have this sense that something is missing. When I try to pin down just what it is, it comes down to the situation I have just described. It is as if I have managed to fulfill very literally the verbal description of a project for a picture, but it truly lacks something essential. Even the symbolic elements I added that I expected to really carry the emotional punch of the thing simply sit there on the canvas, and possess no more than a descriptive potential. I shall need to sit and look at this for a long time, and see if I can work out just what it is that is absent.
What a curious experience! But I feel I must eventually learn a lot from it. Do you understand what I mean? I’d love to know if you have had a similar experience.