What happens when you go back to the basics?

An image can be worked down to its basics, the objects that make it, the building blocks.
That leaves the question; what is an image? If the colors are out of order do we feel the same way about it? By taking something and changing it to brush strokes you are left to imagine your own idea of what you are looking at. Will it make you feel the same? Why does an image need to be restricted to order when clearly our lives are not.