Dear John

I just found your chameleon painting!  It was in a huge black sack, hidden away.

I’m glad it had the title on the back – ‘Indecision’.  The point is, you had selected a title randomly when making the application – there was no actual work of art at that point.  And then you told me you had had a moment of inspiration of how to do something that would fit that title.

So, it’s a brightly coloured background, all different colours.  And in the middle is a chameleon, but rather than having picked up any of its background colour, it’s all grey and plain.  Like he couldn’t decide which colour to take on.

It’s another case (like ‘Horsemeat Magritte’) where the title is part of the idea or the joke.  So if the people looking at it didn’t see the title, it wouldn’t have been as powerful.

Anyway, you never showed it to me, John, because you didn’t think you’d executed your idea well enough – you’d done it in a hurry.

But I was so glad to find it, and I think it’s very good.  It really is good, John.  You clearly did have an artistic touch.  Oh John, what a shame you didn’t do more art, I’m sure you would have if you’d had your retirement.

John, I love your chameleon painting, it’s so precious to me now.  You should have let me see it so I could tell you I thought it was good.