Subjects: Abstract How is abstract art different from what my kid can do? Abstract art can be challenging for people at first because it's not always immediately apparent what an abstract piece is about. We search the canvas for clues to its meaning, and may wonder if it's a kind of trick or hoax — like the emperor's new clothes. Wassily Kandinsky, one of the first abstract artists, addressed this issue in 1910. He said that abstract art is like music: abstract artists arrange colors and shapes into harmonious, expressive, mood-filled compositions, much the way a musician composes notes into chords that resonate with our emotions. Kandinsky also believed that abstraction was the purest and most spiritual art form, because it was about essence rather than appearance. Unlike kids (with the rare exception of a child prodigy), abstract artists consciously choose to express ideas and feelings in a highly refined visual language that can be more powerful than familiar words or symbols. Abstract art: a world apart James Holmberg Using "formal" elements — line, color, shape, and volume — abstract artists create a separate reality, different from the natural world we see around us. Abstract art is usually defined as containing no recognizable imagery. Other terms that are used interchangeably with abstraction are "nonobjective" or "nonrepresentational." Abstract artists may use an actual object as a starting point, or they may give visual form to non-visual qualities such as ideas, feelings, and sensations. There are two basic kinds of abstraction: geometric (or hard edge), in which the forms depicted are rational and measurable; and organic, in which the forms are looser and often suggestive of animate forms from the natural world. Speaking art as a second language Lea Whittington Abstract artists understand the fundamental structure or language of art — the properties of paint, wood, and other media, as well as composition, shape, line, color, balance, and rhythm — and how to organize these elements to create a desired effect. Abstract artists can create significantly different moods by altering the intensity and shades of their colors, or by changing the application of paint from dense and opaque to light and translucent. They express a wide range of feelings by varying the lines from thick to thin, shifting the composition from energetic to tranquil, or converting the shapes from angular to curvilinear. Discover art — and yourself John and Ann Gillen Many artists believe that line, shape, and color can express their deepest feelings. This may seem strange, since most of us tend to express our feelings with words — but just think about how colors can trigger deep symbolic reactions. For example, yellow may remind us of happiness, while red might suggest anger or passion. Abstract art encourages us to explore our emotional connections to colors, shapes, and lines, and to arrive at our own intuitive, intimate understanding of the work. Sometimes our interpretations coincide with the artist's intended meaning, and sometimes they don't — but abstract art provides such a deeply personal experience that it allows for more than just one interpretation. By eliminating recognizable objects and focusing instead on formal elements, abstract art provides a stimulus for multiple viewpoints, associations, feelings, and ideas. Paul Rotterdam Margaret Neill Emilie Clark Next: Interior/Exterior — What is the attraction for artists in depicting their living environments?