Volume 1. Chapter 9. Dimensions

Language

The natural world exists in multiple dimensions. Language exists in time only during which you imagine all the other dimensions.

Process

We think of an apple tree as a single object with roots, trunk, branches, leaves, and fruit, but it’s a process that over time
has extended from a seed reaching into the earth and sky, and a process that lives by extracting elements from rock and soil using water and light to produce its fruit. The work of the artist is like the fruit. Changes occur beneath the surface before we see anything, and, as eating an apple, we never consume a work of art in a single bite.

Formal elements

Time and depth creep into the picture. Line, tone value, and color— measure, weight, and quality— in various relations arrange the mind.

Associations

Perception sometimes awakes the conscious mind but always presents unconscious associations. Sometimes these come alive before us and make us see things move that were otherwise lifeless.

Freedom

To make a new world, we learn from the world we live in. From compromises and limitations, the artist reaches back into the primordial where significant choices have not yet been made. New and strange creation may arise from different choices.

Primordial

Much of this world’s appearances are accidents in the philosophical sense. Instead of focusing on surfaces, artists can peer deeply, to find hidden powers. Dreams may lead to primal means of reaching deeper meanings.