Perceived Perceptions

I finished this piece a few days ago. The red dots were critical to me...a last touch, a grammatical ellipsis as well as a visual connection between a text snip about absence and a fragment of a poem mentioning a "dark week."  I was working to connect the two, bolstered, I thought, by the image of poor Bambi, who certainly had his work cut out for him surviving in Disney's fearsome forest, and that big "I" by the television knobs. I was expressing emotions involving escape by a very narrow margin, something I happen to know a great deal about.

"Oh Day Most Calm," paper on paper collage on 5 x 7 canvas board, January 2012
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Paper sources:
Pathfinder magazine, 1928
Aus der Kindermelt, late 1800s or early 1900s
Phrase from Italian Made Simple, 1960
Icelandic children's magazine, 1968
Various ephemera from personal correspondence, travels, and friends

But those weren't the perceptions that were most widely perceived, at least according to the opinions of the viewers I've talked to on my gallery website. Most viewers experience a warmly nostalgic vibe when looking at this piece rather than the vibe of the quiet but triumphant escape from an oppressive situation that was in my heart and hands when I was putting this together.

Needless to say, I'm intrigued. I'm cogitating the notions of artistic success and failure as they relate to communicating emotions. I'm wondering if my original emotions really matter or if what really matters are the perceptions of viewers at the end point. I'm also studying the components of my design, trying to figure out where I could have stacked the deck more effectively to express my particular hand.

Every day brings more to learn, and I love that.
As always, many thanks for listening.