How can a simple thing, like a piece of art, be called abstract? Simple. Abstraction is merely a form of us seeing. It has nothing to do with what is being seen and how complex that image may be, but rather in how that form is being seen by the viewer. For some, a painting or dance piece could be called abstract because they are missing the underlying beauty that is simple in nature—i.e., lines of paint or the arcs of the body in space. Anything can be seen as abstract, and yet everything is s