Response to Defiant Infidel

Defiant Infidel posted the following comment to my post Dances with Leaves

Draw it and then paint it, ET. One of my best buddies in Halifax, NS, (who is an astonishingly talented artist) told me once that the picture will always exist in the "mind's eye".

It was the day after I had missed a classic and cherished scenic picture from atop a sand dune in the Arabian desert, at 2AM alone under a full moon. There were camels strewn about below and multiple oil wells with burning flames above their off gas vents. I had just succeeded in sticking a Range Rover on its' frame with all four wheels dangling in air on the pinnacle of the lengthy, highest dune for many miles around. I carefully put the camera on a tripod with the truck in the foreground and used a flash to light the vehicle, then left the lens open for extended, bracketed exposure times to pick up the golden expansive background.

The next day, I learned with great disappointment that there was no film in the camera. How I wish I could paint that. I left the area very soon after, before another full moon and perhaps an opportunity to redeem myself. I have since located the exact (it is very large and distinct) dune using Google Earth, but I know I will never return. So it is mine to keep, but not share.

Use your God given talents to create and share your view with others, my friend. You were permitted the view for a purpose.

I began to write my return comment, but the more I wrote, and the more I thought about what DI said; the more all of this seemed important enough to post. I hope he doesn't mind my reproduction of a comment to post for all to see. Things like this renew my faith in the internet as a medium for more than bitching about politics, talking about guns, or other such drivel. Enjoy.

DI,
How you wish you could paint that??? My friend, you've painted that scene into my mind perfectly. What's really amazing is as that picture exists in your mind, it will never exist the same in anyone else's mind. I'd contend that every person who reads your painting sees it even more beautiful than the last, until actually committing your portrait to canvas could only lessen it's magic.

Scenes I've captured in my mind grow more beautiful with age, and were I to have a picture or capture their veneer I would know that they could never be more than that two dimensional box of canvas, paper, or photograph. Their scene would be forever preserved in that box and I could never forget; but they would never become more magical than they were when I witnessed the beauty with all my senses. They could never grow as they could if they were remembered with the beautiful, sad impermanence in a vessel incapable of such preciseness that might be found in the lens of a camera or the contrast of color or the sharp line of ink.

So it is always with a heavy heart that I force these beautiful things into such harsh boxes, and force them to become something more or less than they ever really were. But sometimes, it's the only way they can be communicated to others, and to let their beauty spread, and change hearts.

I suppose it's selfish to keep some of these scenes to myself, but whenever I get the feeling that I can reproduce them, I only end up angry and frustrated. I just don't have the heart, and don't know if I ever will.