When art is in the presence of a viewer, there are moments

In some of these moments, a spark is instantaneous and clues us into greater and stronger moments yet to come. In other cases, a viewer anticipates a meaningful interaction and is left wanting. Sometimes that is because he or she did not arrive at that moment prepared for the encounter. Other times the moment is lost because the art was not developed enough to sustain the attraction.

However, if an engagement is initiated it can begin on a thousand different levels by any of hundreds of possible elements. It’s like the attraction shared by two people – it may be initiated by an unconscious scent or a split second glance. Or, it maybe an attraction that finds its realization through lengthy conversations and an accumulation of unintended circumstances. The key to connection, at that point, is a mutual willingness to acknowledge significance as it has unfolded over time.

In art, it is the same process of fruition. The link can be lost if an idea is unfulfilled. Perhaps there was no convincing idea fostered within the art to begin with. At times, the worth of the art is unrequited because an unreliable lens has distorted the eye of the viewer.

And as with human consummation, the relationship of the viewer to a work of art maybe an act of mad deep love that sustains both the soul of the viewer and the credence of the work for a lifetime. Other times the relation one might have with a work is an illicit fling with all its fractures, contradictions and frustrations.

Even, and especially, at moments of the most intense closeness the catalyst of and for that exact moment is longing. In the presence of the strongest intimacy, a sense of loss pervades the deepest sense of completion.

And so it is in art.; we can never have it. We can only stand in awe of it. It is the awe felt in the arms of your lover. In the end, we are left to wonder at the vagueness of our wonder.