I think it’s much the same with written art. How many of us read and enjoy short stories and novels and can say we fully understand what the artist was trying to express?

I read and enjoy the meal. Sometimes a work stays with me for a very long time, and I find meaning long after my initial experience.

As a fiction writer, I’ve experienced it from the other side. Readers will find meaning in my work that I did not consciously intend. Yet the meaning is there because it is the meaning they received.

That is part of the joy and mystery of art. It exists in a mythical space between the producer and the consumer. Meaning can be elusive, depending on perspective.