Contemplation

Molding, carving, sculpting any figure so that is has human like characteristics and mimics expression has always been fascinating to me. The finishing touch is when the artist carves out a small circle of medium where the pupil of the eye is. Not just a smooth, convex plain for the eye itself, but that extra bit of depth by creating negative space.
Beyond that it is up to the observer to add human dimension. If the artist has successfully created an expression then the observer can relate, can think "Oh, I've seen that face". Whether it's a part of their own muscle memory or a reflection of their friend's/mother's/lover's face.
And this is what makes abstract art such a challenge to relate to. There is no reflection of "human characteristics". We can search and search for "that expression", but it is not immediately revealed to us. There is no eyebrow, no frown, no bit of missing medium to create depth. The expression becomes a stage of "just before sleep", where the figures are familiar but we wake up wondering how to make sense of the jumble of images that hung inside our mind. Try to recall the expression, bring them to our own eyes as if enough concentration would suddenly make our dreaming appear right before us on the breakfast table. Next to the coffee and unceremoniously dumped into the cereal bowl. Floating among the cheerios.
Would you scoop up that dream soaking in the milk, swallow it back down because that was never supposed to happen? Suddenly your strangest thoughts are bought to life and without thinking you try to push them back into your consciousness and out of the world.
If willing dreams into reality were so easy then where would there be a place for the artist? What would there be left to translate? Would it matter if the pupil were a negative space?