Imagination is in control when you begin making an object. The artwork’s potential is never higher than in that magic moment when the first brushstroke is applied, the first chord struck. But as the piece grows, technique and craft take over, and imagination becomes a less useful tool. A piece growns by becoming specific….
It’s the same for all media: the first few brushstrokes to the blank canvas satisfy the requirements of many possible paintings, while the last few fit only that painting - they could go nowhere else. The development of an imagined piece into an actual piece is a progression of decreasing possibilites, as each step in execution reduces furture options by converting one - and only one - possibility into a reality. Finally, at some point or another, the piece could not be other than it is, and it is done.
That moment of completion is also, inevitably, a moment of loss - the loss of all the other forms the imagined piece might have taken. The irony here is that the piece you make is alway one step removed from what you imagined, or what else you can imagine, or what you’re right on the edge of being able to imagine.
David Bayle and Ted Orland, Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, 1993, p. 15-16, describing the hard work between vision and execution.
