From our prior experience with 
structures of this kind, it seems 
impossible that these stairs 
could go continuously 
downward.

    Having explored some of the 
major problems about 
perception of pictorial art, I 
turn now to consider some 
problems about the process of 
creating such art, the drawing 
or painting of pictures. On the 
face of it, one might think that 
drawing and painting, being 
motor acts or behaviors, are far 
afield from the topic of 
perception. But, on further 
reflection, it is evident that 
what and how one draws must 
be intimately connected with 
what and how one perceives. In 
that respect, artistic 
performance is not very 
different from other motor 
performance. Motor acts are 
triggered and guided by what we 
perceive, even in so simple an 
act as picking up an object from 
a table. Of course, other 
cognitive processes, such as 
those that underlie memory 
and the utilization of 
knowledge, also govern overt 
behavior, and, as I will suggest, 
the same is true for the special 
type of behavior we call 
drawing and painting.