Our eyes see more than we think…
Yesterday, I said to a friend that, while driving through a small town just south of me, I felt a throwback to an earlier time, perhaps a time of my grandmother – who knows how far back I was thrown for just an instant.
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Vintage photo of my maternal grandmother, in a younger day… |
And in that instant I felt my life was good. All was gentle and positive and beautiful. Fresh snowy air (if not nose-pinching-cold), ravines and creeks frozen still, a quiet song only the soul hears – all of these things feed me and fill me with a sense of perfection – the way things ought to be but aren’t always. A sense of hope for today and tomorrow.
These moments have always baffled me. They are not dependent on my circumstances, nor on the world’s conditions. They are internal and frequent, though fleeting.
I wasn’t sure how to communicate all that to my friend…
Today I printed out a message from an art newsletter I subscribe to, from the website The Painter’s Keys, written by Robert Genn. The subject was “The Subconscious Eye,” and seemed to address what I’d experienced from a physiological perspective.
Below are snippets of the letter that most caught my attention. How exactly it applies to my work will take a bit more pondering. It does help me understand how communication at best is only partial, and why art of any kind is subjective. Even why we appreciate a beautiful environment.
Robert Genn writes, in part:
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| My Granmother with friends… collaged over a watercolor painting. She’s the one whose face is most highlighted. |
Our eyes move toward those things already on our minds… Some of these stimulants are with us from birth and are a part of our psyche. Others are learned, selected and personalized by life’s preferences…
…The human eye adores a massage. Mere subject matter (in a painting or in our surroundings) may not always be enough. The subconscious eye seeks out atavistic desires. (That means throwback to an earlier time – I had to look it up.
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…To the eye and the complex interpretive devices that are wired to it, suggestion may be more powerful than reality.
Ahhhh… is that why we are drawn to partial images, abstract thoughts? Why we all find different stories in them?
You can read the whole letter here: The Subconscious Eye
Help yourself to the coffee, and thank you for coming. I’d love to know how you respond to this bit of eye trivia…
Barb
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This is so true–I often get such a feeling of pleasure or fulfillment based on fleeting images or scents or sounds–perhaps a face that I think it familiar–something that triggers a memory that I don’t even recognize.
I’d say Robert makes sense. Interesting discussion. I think that’s where my love of abstracts comes from
Anita