Creation or Conversation?

For me, art is as much about conversation as it is about creation.  A piece of art is a conversation between the artist, the medium, and the audience.  I first realized this when I drove to Colorado with a potter friend of mine.  During the long drive, we had plenty of time to talk about life, and I learned a lot about his inner thoughts and feelings, which were very much in turmoil at the time.  When we reached Denver, I helped him unpack his work and put it on display for a local art show.  All of the pieces were arresting, beautiful, and broken.  My artist friend had created perfect pieces and then smashed them into bits to be reworked into new pieces that were more fascinating than the original in their patched imperfection. The words they spoke were  more powerful even than the literal words he had shared with me on the trip, and my heart ached for him and the pain that oozed from his art.  As a woodworker, my art comes in a different form, but it is no less a conversation. This conversation takes place between myself as the artisan and my clients as the audience, with wood being the medium used to convey the words between us.  The question I’m left with is how effectively do I as the artist convey my desired message through the medium of wood to my intended audience, the client. I would like to know what a client feels when they walk beneath snugly fitting arch-top jambs, sit reading in a chaise I’ve designed, rub their hands along the grain of a table top, or grasp a handrail to climb the stairs.   Do they feel the same joy and creativity and purpose I put into the piece while making it?  As they physically interact with a piece of furniture or other project on a daily basis, are they affected by it, and in what way?  I’m considering the possibility of exit forms to give to clients, but I’d really prefer the organic nature of an in-person dialogue.  I’m not sure yet how best to begin conversations like this with clients, but I’m looking forward to further exploration of this concept with both past and future projects.