The painter has contributed little of direct value in developing the music of light.  He is concerned with an instantaneous expression.  He waits for it patiently and, while waiting, learns to appreciate the fickleness of mood in nature, but when he fixes one of these moods he has contributed very little to the art of mobile light.  Unfortunately the art schools teach the student little or nothing pertaining to color for color’s sake.  When the student is capable of drawing fairly well and is acquainted with a few stereotyped principles of color-harmony he is sent forth to follow in the footsteps of past masters.  He may be seen at the art museum faithfully copying a famous painting or out in the fields stalking a tree with the hopes of an embryo Corot.  The world moves and has only a position in the rank and file for imitators.  Occasionally an artist goes to work with a vim and indulges in research, thereby demonstrating originality in two respects.  Painting is just as much a field for research as light-production.

Recently experiments are being made in the production of color-harmonies devoid of form.  Surely there is a field for pure color-composition and this the field of the painter which leads toward the art of mobile light.  Many of the formless paintings of the present day which pass under the banner of this ism or that are merely experiments in the expressiveness of light.  Being formless, they are devoid of subject in the ordinary sense and cannot be more or less than a fixed expression of light.  Naturally they have received much criticism and have been ridiculed, but they can expect nothing else until they are understood.  They cannot be understood until mankind learns their language and then they must be understandable.  In other words, there are impostors gathered around the sincere research-artist because the former have neither the ability to paint for a living nor the inclination to forsake the comparative safety of the mystery of art for the practical world where their measure would be quickly taken.  This army of camp-followers will not advance the art of mobile light, but the sincere seekers after the principles of light-expression who form the foundation of the various isms may contribute much.

The painter will always be available with his finer sensibility to appreciate and to aid in developing the art of mobile light, but his direct contribution appears most likely to come from the present chaos of experiments in pure color-composition, in the psychology of light, or, more broadly, in the expressiveness of light.  The decorator and the designer of gowns and costumes do not arrogate to themselves the name “artist,” but they are daily creating something which is leading toward a fuller appreciation of the expressiveness of light.  If they do not contribute directly to the development of the art of mobile light, they are at least aiding in developing what may eventually be an appreciative public.