The Indivisibles

Whatever thoughts bounce in and out of our brains or tumble from the lips as speech all belong to their area of interest and purpose of expression.

Once my dictionary fell open on the word “atomic,” meaning – not the “super-bomb” – but the least element within each area of enterprise.

In visual art the least discernible parts are lines and shapes, and shapes in tones or colors. These can be as small as pen strokes or dots painted with a pointy brush. These “atomics” or “indivisibles” of picture-making are put in place by the artist with deliberation. They are visible to the viewer who may ponder why the artist chose them for their setting in his work.

The “indivisibles” are thus precisely determinable and also visibly and clearly separable.
 
Areas of painted colors and lines of varied weight can be more than their material properties. We therefore have here a cube and cone and a dense gathering of furnishings – not as physical facts, but as sights we really see.

Whatever appears and unmistakably takes shape inside the picture plane is reality and truth, but such creation is real and true solely within the realm to which it is bound – that of “pictorial art.”

Herein we are guided and helpfully instructed in two ways:  One is that each path of learning and of progress belongs to its own domain. 
The second leads us to the just surmise that these truly separate paths will each likely go a rather parallel course.
By their differences, and only through those differences, can the diverse disciplines make their indispensable and united contribution to the productivity of the vocations.

In a future essay I will try to tell what this can mean to the calling of art.