Physical form in architecture is the result of an intense artistic practice that pulls its inspiration from more than the visual world around us. Ideas materialize, or can be inspired by, a single word or a phrase that best describes the intended outcome. For the practitioners at Elliot+Associates Architects, design springs forth from the murky depths of language, in the jumbled shuffle of words, phrases, and sentence fragments. What syntax is for the poet, becomes form, light and color for the architect. Word Paintings traces the progression of design from the initial inspirations to the finished "architecture portraits," and demonstrates the kindred connection words have always had with their architectural manifestations.