[antonvs]

I remember the shape of a candle perfectly well, I just can't "see" anything.

It's not a list of abstract properties, it's an understanding of the shape of a candle. Why would you need to be able to see it to remember its shape?

[the_af]

Because the shape is a physical thing, it's perceived by your senses.

I meant remember, not understand. You can understand something, but I specifically mean remember.

[antonvs]

I can prove I can remember the shape, because I can draw it.

I think you're putting too much importance on the ability to visualize it. I can have a high-resolution image of a candle, but it's not useful for understanding that there's a candle in the picture - for that, you need to have parsed the image and understood what it contains. The visualization is just the source material. Similarly, when you read a book, you're not remembering what entire pages look like with all the words on them.

The problem with these kinds of things is that so much happens unconsciously that we're not aware of. You think remembering the image is important because you're unaware of all the processing that allows you to understand the image.

[the_af]

> I think you're putting too much importance on the ability to visualize it.

Almost all artists will tell you the ability to visualize is critical to be a good artist...