Art Is Wordless Storytelling

An analogy for contemplation.

The Analogy is an old concept for a section of our Creative Pragmatist Substack. In fact, it is the framework within which I wrote my first ever CP article. The idea was, and is, that analogies provide a means for making sense of otherwise complicated ideas, and/or provide a means for communicating ideas in a fashion through which others can relate.

Most of us use analogies every day when describing a feeling, an issue, a desire - the subway was so chilly this morning it felt like a freezer. Given the frequent usage of this powerful literary device, we found it potentially interesting to take these common, and not so, analogies and extrapolate upon them so as to highlight their applications in ways one may not already see. And maybe you do, see that is, in which case I hope these articles may be even more relatable and further that which you already know.

The first piece I wrote in relation to analogies connected an omakase dining experience to that of shopping with a designer you love and trust, in this case Tibi - you can read here:

I have been pondering the idea that art is wordless spelling, and more aptly that art is wordless storytelling - I’m sure for many visual artists this is not a wholly novel concept. Dependent on one’s specialty, the form of language differs, some examples of which may be paint for a painter, clay for a ceramist, or numbers for a mathematician. I believe art exists in every field of discipline, whether we are consciously aware or not. An organized and elaborate Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with forecasting for 2026 and budgets for each department contingent on a diverse range of carefully projected values is in many ways no different than an oil on linen portrait with blended and layered shades of color, depth, and intricately minute details (like each numerical value in a cell block) that when perfectly arranged work to tell a greater story. All without physical words.

To paint what one sees is one way to go about the creative process, but for maximal impact, we as the observer are typically in search of more - perhaps a new way of seeing what we casually observe each day. The art here lies within the story the painter looks to spell out through colors that are intrinsically linked to human emotion, or depth and blank space that evokes a sense of emptiness and implies a void of some sort, wordlessly. The term “spelling”, in some interpretations, is derived from the act of casting spells - spells that would have been cast using the spoken word. It would be natural then, following this linkage of art with words, that the former could spell without the need for the latter, by instead using the chosen medium, be it clay, pastel, or complex derivatives.

Color vs. Black & White

The cliché, a picture is worth a thousand words, rings true here as well. Personally, I draw the greatest impact from photography when there is as little context paired with an image as possible. Even more so, a black and white photograph can often spell more words than one of color. The art of black and white photography emanates from the reduction of visual clutter in an image, stripping it down to its most bare and raw form, and in that process exemplifying emotion and space that was otherwise vague and uncertain, essentially eliminating all distraction from understanding the core of the story. Similarly to writing, the process of creating art involves a variety of characters, protagonists and antagonists, plots and subplots, sets and settings, all communicated silently. This is applicable, as mentioned above, to all disciplines - antagonists exist for a financial planner just as they do for film directors or authors. Where the latter sees them as villains like the Joker or Voldemort, the former may see the embodiment of antagonists through a blazer or sneaker that struggles to sell and hurts the bottom line, thus spurring a need to bolster the presence of protagonists in their respective storyline.

Throughout the process of writing this article, the deep purpose behind this section has come further into the light. All that lives and is created by life is profoundly connected, no matter how unlikely it may seem. Alas, my goal for these analogies is that they serve as an approachable and relevant communication of the connectedness inherent in everything we, as living beings, do.