Thursday, July 2, 2009

Three Versus Two

The only thing that makes something 3-dimensional as opposed to 2-dimensional, is if you can walk by it and walk through it! (or swim through it or ride through it or dive through it! Or fly! through it......

Of course if something is 3-dimensional, it doesn't have to be human-crafted. But if it is two dimensional, as we are dealing with, it pretty much has to be human-crafted. This leads us to some interesting conclusions in the art world. One can construct sculpture and ceramic figures and vases, for example, and architectural edifices, or an automobile or an airplane or a ship, or a printing press, and these are clever and 3-dimensional, but most other things that are 3-dimensional are definitely not human crafted: nature and space, and humans, and flowers and trees and animals and fish, etc!

And so we have to be willing to focus ourselves on the art world, if we are limiting ourselves to the world of two dimensions. Here in two dimensions we will find the work of ALL the great painters, plus many skillful and ingenius graphic commercial artists, plus calligraphers and illustrators and photographers and printmakers and draftsmen and fabric designers, and all surface designers!

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