During my time as a homeschooled Jr. high student, I remember curling up with my art textbook, a small tome that contained examples of the majesty of human creativity, along with some thought provoking questions and commentary.
So, if you were to ask me about Divisionism during that time I would have parroted back what it was, the separation of pigment applied as individual dots or strokes. Basically your eye does the work of combining the individual colors as you take in the whole.
That said, for the past many years, I have been seeing a different kind of Divisionism metastasize, one that is all about separating by color, but without a unifying focus on a beautiful, united tapestry as a whole.
Instead of zooming in and appreciating that one magnificent, unique bit of color that works with the whole conglomeration to make up the painting, we seem to be focusing on isolating the pigments from each other.
I love people. Each one of them is a glorious unique entity who's capable of being a wonderful member of the tapestry that is humanity. But I gotta tell ya, I absolutely despise Divisionists.
And by Divisionists I mean all these agents of discord and enmity who are actively stoking the fires of disunity among us all. Yes, there are some ideas that are better than others, and absolutely there are some behaviors that are better than others, but you know what, there are not colors that are better than others. Period. They are all amazing!
If a behavior or ideology is harmful, how is perpetuating it just? Discussion is awesome, outright Divisionist propaganda not so much.
Lest you think I am talking about trying to attain some hippy dippy world of perpetual hand holding, I am not. Disagreement, debate, and dissent are marvelous things too. Nope, I am talking about the rise of separating us by pigment, label, and behavior. Are we all supposed to be content when we are properly corralled and never faced with anything that isn't of the same persuasion as us? What a freaking boring world that would be.
Three years ago our family hosted my husband's Xbox gamer friends on our farm. All of them grew up in large inner-cities. They were about as different from us in every possible way as a person could be demographically.
But you know what, community magic happened over those three days as we all hung out together on our farm. I baked them all manner of things, took them on hikes, had the most amazing shooting range extravaganza, made them feel comfortable, loved, and respected because that's what you should do dangit, offer the finest hospitality to those who cross your doorstep.
One night as we all sat around a fire sipping on samples of one the friend's amazing whiskey collection from around the world, I remember feeling the opposite of division, I felt connection. As our friends danced on a plywood dance floor we had made next to the fire, another roasted a huge rack of ribs on the spit, yet another was regaling our children with what life was like growing up in East LA while my kids and others told her equally wild tales of growing up in the wilderness. We were a gathering of all the pigments, socio-economic statuses, and genders, it was amazing.
And you know what wasn't present at all, in any form? Division.
