ArtGraph

ARTGRAM  ·  THE SHAPE VOCABULARY

ArtGram.Spur

One reading carries the whole painting and the other five stay where they are. A single argument, made alone, with nothing underneath it to fall back on.

The most typical Spur in the catalog: Algea – The Pulse of Life. Closest of the 38 to the shape’s own mean on all six.

Where it sits

Texture
2.5 below the catalog median of 3.0
Contrast
2.5 below the catalog median of 3.5
Form
2.3 below the catalog median of 3.0
Abstraction
1.6 below the catalog median of 2.6
Color Range
2.4 below the catalog median of 3.0
Palette
3.9 below the catalog median of 4.0

Means across all 38. The signature is what holds for the shape as a whole, not a rule every painting obeys: a named silhouette cutting through a continuum, not a category with a boundary.

What it is next to

Let one more reading reach and it becomes Fork, Samara or Wing, and let one drop back and it becomes Bud. Two paintings a single step apart are related in a way you can see, which is what makes the thirteen a language rather than a list.

What it invites

awe 11  ·  aliveness 7  ·  longing 6  ·  reverence 5  ·  restlessness 4  ·  solitude 2  ·  defiance 2  ·  tenderness 1

The 38

Ordered from the most typical outward. The last of them sit at the edge of the shape, where the next one begins.

Bud 1 Spur 38 Wing 14 Fork 51 Samara 20 Frond 8 Sprig 49 Trillium 12 Sheaf 12 Spray 16 Quatrefoil 6 Corona 17 Bloom 2 TEXTURE CONTRAST FORM ABSTRACTION COLOR RANGE PALETTE
All thirteen shapes →