Oh wow, is sometimes all one gets from someone looking at a painting. Oh wow, for me, lets you know, as a painter, that you have 'socked' it to them in a way that makes their gut react. It is the moment in which the viewer zooms in ; however, the zoom in can also bring forth a moronic response such as wasteland himself has revealed. With all due respect, blah blah.

I had a friend over for dinner one time, and he looked at the painting I had just finished and said "are you sure you didn't go too far with this one, are you sure" he just could not see what I saw, how all that was in that painting meant everything to me, all that I had overcome. To him it was maybe $100 I could have spent elsewhere.I know he isn't a moron, but he doesn't get it.He has since been invited back for dinner and he just looks now - and occassionally I overcook his asparagus.

I think we want the viewer to decide for themselves what they see, but other times when they burst out a response that feels'shredding', we want to put their head in a vice grip and squeeze real hard, after all, it is just wasted space up there.

I think you lit a fire Leya!