Barnacles,alive

OK here's the second phase of the evolution of rendering these tiny creatures (acorn barnacles) in stainless steel. Now I have inserted their tiny jaws to give the look of the living beast. I'll warrant you'll agree it's an improvement and I'm getting there,but not done yet. As each new level of reality is accomplished the reference photos and the "homework" (a la research)becomes even more important. Now I'm looking at finer and finer details.
I showed these yesterday to a diver friend of mine and he still did not know what they were. But I had my awesome web maven over for dinner last night and when she saw them she was blown away and thought they were marvelous. So ,you know,you do what you can to do your art the best way you know how. But there will always be times when parts of the general public (your potential patrons) don't "get it". LOL. This is why nearly half our work as artists is educational,informative,and another reason why it is SO IMPORTANT to have an artist's statement with your work,not just a cryptic punctuation mark. It's a responsibility for Pete's sake.
And please believe me when I tell you,it's not enough to "walk the walk"i.e. make good art. If you want to be successful you have to also "talk the talk".And this is not just to satisfy your arts committee in grad school (which is a drag I know) ,but for showing your work in galleries and for when you get interviewed etc.
Artists are always the ones to foreshadow the future in their work and symbolic representations,but in order to provide context and cement the impact the work provides,there must be an accompanying dialogue or narrative that the viewer can take away with the visual in their mind. People art not dumb but lazy, and often won't do the necessary work to EDUCATE themselves about representational (and non representational) art. The old adage "I don't know anything about art but I know what I like"is good only up to a certain point. There is a direct connection between a person's level of awareness,education,training,experience,and exposure to Art ,and their ABILITY TO APPRECIATE IT.