A painting by Harry Reese

Why does something always have to mean something?

So that when you see it your thinking tries to burn a hole all the way through what you're seeing, like a little kid on his knees in the field behind his house trying to start a little fire with a magnifying glass and a piece of white notebook paper on which he's placed a clump of dry twigs.

If you look at something long enough without thinking about the meaning of it, or about the meaning of your looking, something always begins to come forward and reveal itself for what it is, sooner or later.

This is the way art works; there's not only reciprocity between whoever made the art and whoever's looking at it after it's been made, there's also the recognition that the meaning is bound to be different for both, and that there may be no meaning at all.

Even when neither is thinking of meaning the meaning is what's always changing, as art is what always has a new beginning.

The painting by Harry Reese is titled, "The Gateless Gate." It doesn't matter what kind of light's on it--bright or dim, good or bad--every time I look at it it has new meaning.