How do I split a shape into 2 objects?

[Chris P. Bacon]

I am creating free hand drawn shapes which will be text boxes (subheading + text) or article chunks, and I want to apply envelope distort only for the subheading (section 1), or envelope distort with different settings for section 1 and section 2, 2 being the body text part of the article chunk.

How do I separate a shape into 2 sections so I could apply envelope distort with different settings for the 2 sections?

[Chris P. Bacon]

Envelope distort fills the shapes more perfectly than just the default way of filling shapes with text, so I am trying to minimize the distortion for the body text, but still get a more perfect filling than with the normal text fill. 

[Chris P. Bacon]

These areas of text are actually parts of images that have an uniform filling or areas that have been covered with a single color.

[Doug A Roberts · Accepted solution]

Draw a line through the object at the point you indicated, then select all and use Divide in the Pathfinder panel.

[Chris P. Bacon]

Thanks.

[Jacob Bugge · Accepted solution]

Chris,

Or you can just use Object>Path>Divide Objects Below as soon as you have drawn the line (reaching or going beyond the path) and it is still selected.

Edit: Hi Doug.