ABOUT FORM+THEME+CONTEXT®

Today, everyone needs 21st century skills to understand society’s images, ideas, and media of the past as well as that which permeates our increasingly complex visual world.  Form+Theme+Context (FTC) is a Balanced Way of Seeing® that enables any viewer to explore artworks and other phenomena for clarity of vision through focus, interpretation, and discovery. Using the FTC Palette as a tool for decoding and encoding meaning, this balanced way of seeing can deepen one’s understanding of artworks, museums, music, poem, film, as well as complex issues such as bullying or sexual abuse & harassment! To download FTC Palettes go to the FTC Palette Tool Page.

A BALANCED WAY OF SEEING®… TO SEE MUCH MORE:

Pay balanced attention to Form, Theme, and Context and Discover Connections between Them

Formal Qualities

What we can See

Specific Visual Evidence in a work of art revealed through formal elements, design principles, and artistic organization, including composition, scale, and use of media. Here, we notice the artist’s many specific structural decisions embedded in the creative process–all leading to a unique final product.

Thematic Qualities

What we can Discern

Embedded Visual Evidence that reveals the work’s topic, subject matter, art historical references, and connections to other disciplines.  Here, we explore what the artist expresses through a selected overarching concept or “Big Idea” that reveals the artist’s expressive viewpoint connecting art to life

Contextual Qualities

What we Cannot See

Invisible Evidence and Authenticity including backstory, text, subtext, context, nuance…that we can ‘google’ to discover the work’s significance and relevance…in history, different cultures, and our lives as we probe the conditions for and under which the work was created and valued.

ABOUT FORM+THEME+CONTEXT®

Today, everyone needs 21st century skills to understand society’s images, ideas, and media of the past as well as that which permeates our increasingly complex visual world.  Form+Theme+Context (FTC) is a Balanced Way of Seeing® that enables any viewer to explore artworks and other phenomena for clarity of vision through focus, interpretation, and discovery. Using the FTC Palette as a tool for decoding and encoding meaning, this balanced way of seeing can deepen one’s understanding of artworks, museums, music, poem, film, as well as complex issues such as bullying or sexual abuse & harassment! To download FTC Palettes go to the FTC Palette Tool Page.

HOW TO SEE:

Pay balanced attention to Form, Theme and Context and Discover Connections between Them

Formal Qualities

What we can See

Specific Visual Evidence in a work of art revealed through formal elements, design principles, and artistic organization, including composition, scale, and use of media. Here, we notice the artist’s many specific structural decisions embedded in the creative process–all leading to a unique final product.

Thematic Qualities

What we can Discern

Embedded Visual Evidence that reveals the work’s topic, subject matter, art historical references, and connections to other disciplines.  Here, we explore what the artist expresses through a selected overarching concept or “Big Idea” that reveals the artist’s expressive viewpoint connecting art to life

Contextual Qualities

What we Cannot See

Invisible Evidence and Authenticity including backstory, text, subtext, context, nuance…that we can ‘google’ to discover the work’s significance and relevance…in history, different cultures, and our lives as we probe the conditions for and under which the work was created and valued.

“I see works of art as primary documents of a civilization. The written document tells you one thing, but a painting or a sculpture or a building tell you something else. They are both primary documents, but they tell you things in different ways.”

—Bruce Cole,
Former Chair, National Endowment for the Humanities