We are Visual People

Our powers of observation are great.


People see in a unique way in the animal kingdom.

While other animals may have greater visual acuity, it is not linked to our flexible brains. We see better than our dogs. More important, we perceive better than most animals. Many animals and insects have greater range but they do not always understand what they see. We are geared to question our sight and to act on it.



When an animal is still, it is virtually invisible to many animals, indeed, sometimes to us, but if we move our heads, or look at it out of the sides of our eyes, it may well pop into view.

S. Tschantz

The visual arts, ea painting, sculpture and drawing were for a long time considered more common than the higher arts such as poetry and writing. Visual art is non-verbal, so the verbal arts were free to call it names. One reason it was denigrated was because drawing was a demonstratively teachable skill, which is ridiculous, as music and dancing are also teachable skills and no one would argue that they are not true arts. But visual art is non-verbal and vulnerable to name-calling by the more verbal arts. Also, the visual arts have long history of high visibility and usefulness, and that very usefulness was argued against them. Their art was considered lowly, a mere craft.



So there is a separation in the arts between the visual and the verbal.