In the late 1880s Georges Seurat and Paul Signac began a painting technique called pointillism. The technique relies the human brain’s ability to merge individual marks of color into bright smears and smudges—forming objects, conveying ideas, and narrating stories. From far away, each speck is part of something bigger than itself—a shadow, an umbrella, or a woman’s hat. Each speck of oil paint the pointillist marks onto his blank canvas is different in shade, texture, size, and purpose. Specks of all sorts—dark, light, warm, cool, neat, and splashy—surround each other. Without their differences, the canvas would lack contrast and depth. The specks are carefully placed onto the canvas, one by one, each displaying the artist’s effort and affection
