Art Thought: Representation or Life?

As I paint the mold on an eggplant, I am thinking about that point in a painting when you choose between trying to accurately represent what is in front of you or putting your own energy into your subject.  Often, when I focus on being accurate I find my paintings become dull and lacking life. There is a fine balance between capturing tone and hue while pushing values and intensity to better represent form or volume.  I think it is similar to the dilemma of trying to locate a subatomic particle and measure its mass - you cannot do both at the same time.  It is hard to see what is in front of you accurately in the 3-dimensional world and recreating it in a 2-dimensional setting.  And how do you paint mold, anyway?