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By nature, art is a wholly subjective practice. Even the intention to create art is subjective; people from many third-world cultures create what the western world would call art even though the concept of art for its own sake is foreign to them. As Thomas Berger said, "What is art, but a way of seeing?" My epiphany is borne both of my own innate desire to control how my work is interpreted, and of the question of whether the greatest artists before me (and here I refer to "artists" in the broadest sense, including authors, songwriters, dancers, etc.) really meant to convey those things that the critics and scholars later attribute to them. At some point during my study of the so-called "classics" I was made aware of the fact that those artists may not have consciously intended all that was later attached to their pieces. That struck a chord. John Lennon once had to explain this concept to a rabid fan who had knocked on Lennon's front door. The man seemed to be stuck in the mindset that his specific interpretation of Lennon's lyrics was what John had meant to say when he wrote them. John explained that while it was wonderful that his words had been meaningful to this man, the actual meaning was up for grabs. The words did mean something to John, but John knew as he wrote them that they would mean something else to the listener. Specifically, my epiphany is this: the endless meanings that can be gleaned from a given work of art are possibly the most important elements of that art. The fact that someone might read something into my work that I didn't intentionally write is a good thing, a beautiful thing. It broadens the value of that work by an order of magnitude. I suppose, then, that the best one can hope for as an artist is that a great enough quantity or "quality" of people (as judged by your own criteria) enjoy the art you create, for their reasons, that you are willing and able to continue creating it, for your reasons. Without that, you are your only audience, but there's nothing particularly wrong with that either. Thank goodness. ;)
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