We always apply filters (especially we academics) to a subject in the hopes of providing context. Label Blake as a poet and we have negated or ignored Blake as visual artist. Label Blake as a (visual) artist and we have negated or ignored him as a poet. Label Blake as an example of romanticism and we have placed him in a tidy little box. Hell, if we can’t place any creative person into an “ism” we usually place them in some “romantic tradition.”

I think the artist Roy Lichtenstein always had it right when he commodified the visual world in his work.