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Social upheaval and challenges find their way into art. Sometimes they appear heavy handed and unpersuasive as when countless artists tried to depict the horrific experience of 9/11 with ineffective visual pantomimes. An oblique and piercing way to transmute our … Continued
Da Vinci observed problems with linear perspective and hard outlines. We don’t see like that! He saw that natural perspective curves, perhaps as the result of our eye’s convex lens. He further observed that edges were not sharp and hard … Continued
You and I create the picture of our world more from within than from without, that is we are less reliant on our eyes or more precisely, the photons that touch our neural tissues than on our cortex. Our cortex … Continued
We credit Leonardo da Vinci with introducing the theories of chiaroscuro and S’fumato to painting. To clarify how chiaroscuro (light against dark) works let’s look at a detail from the dark in da Vinci’s “Virgin in the Rocks” (example 1). … Continued
The ancient Roman architect, Vitruvius explained there were four orders of architecture, four types of columns in his opus De Architectura. His ideas still circulate in architecture today. But, his notion of capitals on columns is a reductionist idea. If … Continued
Among our first primordial human passions was collecting sea shells for aesthetic, utilitarian and commercial purposes. Across time and cultures seashells have played a role in art, commerce, religion, and our technology. Let’s consider the aesthetics of seashells in painting … Continued