‘HER’/gunther (acrylic on linen)
September 24, 2023
By Arthur H. Gunther III
Form is the substance of life, whether it be our homes, places we visit, the food we eat, the beauty we admire and that which we do not; it is our bodies, perhaps our souls.
Admiration, indifference, no opinion, lust, any emotion are there as descriptive adjectives for form as seen by the individual.
Architects will debate form over function with builders who see the opposite. Women, men, “they” will see form perhaps as extension of themselves, the part that is missing in their own form.
Government will view form as bridges, buildings, infrastructure of all sorts as well as the red-tape forms we all must complete to exist in ever-structured society.
Vogue, other magazines will offer highly stylized photographs of models who do not fit reality but who are in the form of breaking fashion, without which there is little progress in dressing our bodily forms.
The dictionary says form is “the visible shape or configuration of something,” but what of the soul. What is its form?
As a verb, form is to “bring together parts or combine to create (something).” Such as “The nations formed an alliance against the enemy,” which collectively is another form.
Artists make or shape something into a form, which is applauded, rejected or just passed by. As it is with humans, too, which are forms.
All in all, form, whether it also is function, is part of life’s themes. (You can form your own opinion on all this.)
The writer is a retired newspaperman. ahgunther@yahoo.com
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