Kathleen says, "It isn't unlike news reports of Madonnas and Jesus on windows or burnt into toast. It seems that humans are hard-wired to make sense of what they see, and while people without art training respond to color, composition and design, they still personalize what they see."
I learned that this psychological phenomenon is called pareidolia: We perceive a vague and random stimulus, such as an image or sound, as significant; for example, animals or faces in clouds.
There is also the argument among some artists that all art is abstract art, that dividing realism/figuration and abstraction into two categories is not precise. Every landscape, still life, or portrait, whether as a painting, photograph, or sculpture is still abstracted from the real thing it visually represents. It is an artist's interpretation, translation, or distortion of something tangible and observable, something three-dimensional that actually exists in the world.
What does abstract art mean to you?
Do you think of art in terms of representational/figurative vs. abstract? If so, what do you put in each category? If you don't, do you consider all art abstract?
When you look at non-objective art, what do you see: color, form, line, space, or do you find yourself imagining realistic objects?