How does a painting read?

[John Crowther]

I completely agree with you, Mike. I have a theory about how the mind works -- most of our thinking is done in what I call "thought stacks," that is, an idea or perception springs into our mind with all the elements, or syntax, of the thought piled up in a stack. To communicate with others, or for others to communicate with us, our thoughts are turned into what I call "information streams." Incidentally. the right brain processes in stacks, the left brain processes in streams. Writing, music, and drama all come to us in information streams, but a painting hits us first as a stack, holistically, and only afterward, if it all, do we start to analyze what we're seeing in streams. We artists talk about centers of interest and directing the eye into the painting, but the viewer isn't aware of this process in the same way that someone reads a book, or watches a film, where we haven't had the full experience until we reach the end. Indeed, artists aren't always conscious of how or why they're leading the viewers's eye to the center of interest, although the process of actually doing the painting is one of turning our "stacked" thoughts into the information stream of brush stroke after brush stroke. So no, we don't look at a painting left to right or top to bottom, perceiving it in streams. It's one of the fascinating things about gestalt, the way it works on us without our being aware of it.

John C.