Art and Literature, a Comparison

Art and Literature: A Comparison

Art and writing are two very different ways of expressing oneself, but there are elements of artistic expression that remain common in both. Tone, theme, and structure are just a few of these elements. The works of Jasper Johns, “False Start,” and, “Painting with Two Balls,” as well as Annie Dillard’s, “Heaven and Earth in Jest,” are comparable in that all three works of art use the aforementioned elements in order to reach the audience with a direct point, which seems to be the idea that in order to understand anything in life and nature, you need to look to actually see the true meaning and purpose behind it. The structure and tone of these works are used similarly by both artists in order to demonstrate this somewhat complex and hidden theme.

Annie Dillard begins her story, “Heaven and Earth in Jest,” right away by developing a structure in which she creates breaks between paragraphs, halting the continuous flow of the passage. These paragraph breaks not only create transitions from one idea to another, but each serves a much greater purpose, which is to utilize the structure to develop the theme. Because the paragraph breaks are quite obviously not an accident, the reader is forced to contemplate the reason for their existence. Each break serves as an idea change, and the most important break, which occurs between paragraphs twelve and thirteen, jumps from present to past, and she really delivers her point in the last paragraph of the story. The tone of Annie Dillard’s story is inquisitive and intimate, and the imagery she uses aids in the delivery of the overall message of the piece. “We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what’s going on here,” (Dillard 61). This theme manifests itself throughout the story by actually causing the reader to use the idea in order to understand the story itself. Without realizing the importance of structure and tone in Dillard’s story, the whole thing seems like a hodge-podge of anecdotes and imagery, but by taking a closer look it is almost impossible to misunderstand the theme that is being presented.

Jasper Johns attempts to portray the same idea of simplistic existence in his paintings, “False Start,” and, “Painting with Two Balls.” Born in Allendale, South Carolina, Johns grew up in a place where he says, “there were no artists and there was no art,” (Wikipedia). He claims to have always wanted to be an artist, and once he started painting, he caught the attention of an audience because of the simplicity of his subject matter. “There may or may not be an idea,” he says, “the meaning may just be that the painting exists,” (PBS). “False Start,” which was created in 1959, uses a structure similar to that of Annie Dillard’s, “Heaven and Earth in Jest.” The 67.25 by 54 inch canvas encompasses what seem to be just random strokes of paint (Artchive False). These strokes are mathematically placed at just the right coordinates, and stamped words, “RED, WHITE, BLUE, ORANGE, GRAY,” are meticulously placed in order to send just the right message to the audience. By turning the words on different angles, Johns forces the audience to look at the painting in many different ways, and like he said, the point of the art is just to exist. The theme being portrayed is the beauty of existence. The color and paint set the tone for the painting. By using bright blue, red, yellow, orange, white, and every now and then a splash of green or gray, the artist creates an uplifting view of the beauty of mere existence. “Painting with Two Balls,” also by Johns, demonstrates the same theme using almost the