The paper relates observations and reflections made during practice-based research into ‘becoming’ and ‘disappearing.’ By drawing and then erasing the work through various methods, it became apparent that nothing actually ‘becomes’ or ‘disappears.’ Only the material form changes, along with the linguistic concept. In this paper, I will suggest that these linguistic concepts are ‘abstractions’ from my direct, sensory experience of drawing. Direct experience is perceived in a dream mode of perception, giving rise to a poetic and metaphorical form of language. Then a waking form of perception occurs, and forms delimited concepts as ‘abstractions’ from my direct experience. In relation to Walter Benjamin’s theory of language, this can be perceived as a process of translation; from the language of things, into human language.