A contrary resolution of a familiar aesthetic paradox. That which is obscure, hidden, disguised, invites speculation. Such ephemeral effects as transparence, translucence, reflection, refraction, caesura, gestalt can evoke pictorial simulacra. Thus what things are or seem or are conceived as can turn out to be quite other than is first thought. To the artist his image/sign may be a unique phenomenon, a thing in and of itself. But to the viewer art is an epiphenomenon: a byproduct of some foreign endeavor, an answer to some unknown question. The conventional methods for navigating these lapsed communications are aesthetics and verbal interpretation. However, conventions all too often prove inevitably wrong. The fallibility of viewer, artist and the work itself tend to lead us astray. Possibly beauty and meaning are not what we should be looking for. Perhaps the work of art comes to each of us as a stranger, one we learn to enjoy, wonder, possess only after we discover for ourselves some of its secrets and look toward more of the same. It may be just a garden path, but for those who love surprises art can be an end in itself.