In my real life, I tend to unintentionally surround myself by people I consider far more creative than myself. Mind you, I consider myself to have an exceptional imagination...but I lack the talent/skill/ability to translate that imagination in a manner satisfacory to myself. So I don't.

However, I am always thrilled to meet the mind behind the creative work. Creative work (or art...take your pick) works very much along the same lines as any other communication type. Anyone here remember the old Shannon model of communication? It went something like this:

Information Source --(message)--> Transmitter --(signal)--> NOISE --(Recieved Signal)--> Reciever --(potentially altered message)--> Destination

'Art' is like any other form of communication in this respect: The Artist [Information Source] concieves an idea [the Message] and then has to translate it through all their perceptions, ideas, cultural concepts, mores, what have you [the Transmitter] to create the artwork in its medium [the Signal]. The Signal then goes out into the World, where it read/viewed/heard/watched/consumed by the audience (and that audience may or may not have been the audience the Artist intended!). This consumption could be considered the NOISE of the process. And then the act of experiencing the art becomes the [Recieved Signal] which must be translated through the audience's perceptions, ideas, cultural concepts, mores, kitchen sink [the Reciever] to create a potentially altered [Message] which lodges itself in the audience's brain [Destination].

A slightly more evolved version of the Shannon model of communication process includes a cute little arrow where the Destination gives 'Feedback' to the Source...

This is where art, IMHO, gets fun. And why it becomes so thrilling to myself (anyway) to have some sort of communication with the artist. I can read a book, and because of who I am, and all the experiences that have ever happened to me to make me ME...I am going to take the message in that book, and apply it to myself, and come up with what I think the artist was thinking. If I can then turn back to that artist and say, "I think your message was X"...I get the scintillating pleasure of having the artist go, "WtF? I didn't mean that! Gads, is that what everyone thinks of my art? I've totally failed to make my point!"

If I'm lucky, then I get to have a discussion about the art (and the message) the creator intended, and in that way I learn a little more about the art, the artist, and myself. If not, I've creeped said artist out and good luck ever talking to them again...but I have learned something from the encounter either way.