abstract

Once upon a time… I didn’t “get” abstract art. I understood color, and motion, and composition, sure - after all, I’d been painting since I was a tot. And in art class, I’d gone through exercises of gradually distorting an image until it looked like something (or nothing) else - and I recognized the high level of creativity involved in turning a photo of a toaster into a series of squares and swirls.

But other than the occasional “that looks cool”, my results were lackluster, and the whole thing felt intellectual and cold.

Then I read “Drawing on the Artist Within” (a follow up to the classic “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” by Betty Edwards). With one quick exercise from the book, I grokked abstraction on an *emotional* level.

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