Iím very good at Rorschach ink blot tests. Iíve always seen more in something than what is actually there. The walls of the kitchen, for example, have random blue splotches and interlacing strands of gold. As a child I would pick out figuresóa man putting on a coat, an elephant taking a shower. I saw a monkey in old dried glue in the stairway, a bird lying prone in the wood grain of a church pew.
In high school I went through an abstract art phase. I cut patterned blue wrapping paper into random shapes and stuck them to my bedroom walls just so I could stare at them and tease out the images.
What are these things you can see when you stare at chaos long enough? They are not images of you, but in the world they may be recognized only by you. They were not there without the inkblot, the wallpaper design, the wood panel. You give birth to the image, in a way, when you invest meaning in the random.
How many pieces of wrapping paper did I have to cut, my scissors slashing in jagged lines, sharkís teeth, before I had my favoriteóa girl admiring herself in a mirror? I took a pencil and drew her, defining her with eyes and hands to make her a shared vision, persuading others to see it too. I am into persuasion, not the veiling of meaning. This is no private revelation.
If you and I both see the girl with the mirror, she is ours.
That's part of what makes you so wonderful.
I've noticed that you inspire creativity in those around you. It's impossible to spend time with you and not feel a need to create something.
It is, dare I say, a gift.
Posted by: Pollux at April 14, 2003 12:46 AMI remember sorta seeing those things on your walls in high school....but to know what it all means finally is a good and decent thing indeed....I used to see things in the painted walls of my bedroom.....I used to see a house and kids and dogs and cats and the color yellow(even though the paint was blue and white) and I used to see trees and things....I stopped my "seeings" b/c my mother caught me talking to the girl in the paint on my bedroom wall and told me that people would want me to be carted off somewhere where I couldn't have a pretty dress or a nice bed.......
I miss the girl I used to be before "society" took her away.....when I met you, we would always joke and say that we were "birds of a feather"......then the colors on my wings changed, and no longer were we alike, but we are more alike that we would even like to admit to ourselves.......Thank you for giving me back my "innocent" self once more in your entry...you've just made my day.
Posted by: sharon-nicole at April 14, 2003 11:47 AMI remember sorta seeing those things on your walls in high school....but to know what it all means finally is a good and decent thing indeed....I used to see things in the painted walls of my bedroom.....I used to see a house and kids and dogs and cats and the color yellow(even though the paint was blue and white) and I used to see trees and things....I stopped my "seeings" b/c my mother caught me talking to the girl in the paint on my bedroom wall and told me that people would want me to be carted off somewhere where I couldn't have a pretty dress or a nice bed.......
I miss the girl I used to be before "society" took her away.....when I met you, we would always joke and say that we were "birds of a feather"......then the colors on my wings changed, and no longer were we alike, but we are more alike that we would even like to admit to ourselves.......Thank you for giving me back my "innocent" self once more in your entry...you've just made my day.
Posted by: sharon-nicole at April 14, 2003 11:47 AMI remember sorta seeing those things on your walls in high school....but to know what it all means finally is a good and decent thing indeed....I used to see things in the painted walls of my bedroom.....I used to see a house and kids and dogs and cats and the color yellow(even though the paint was blue and white) and I used to see trees and things....I stopped my "seeings" b/c my mother caught me talking to the girl in the paint on my bedroom wall and told me that people would want me to be carted off somewhere where I couldn't have a pretty dress or a nice bed.......
I miss the girl I used to be before "society" took her away.....when I met you, we would always joke and say that we were "birds of a feather"......then the colors on my wings changed, and no longer were we alike, but we are more alike that we would even like to admit to ourselves.......Thank you for giving me back my "innocent" self once more in your entry...you've just made my day.
Posted by: sharon-nicole at April 14, 2003 11:48 AMI remember sorta seeing those things on your walls in high school....but to know what it all means finally is a good and decent thing indeed....I used to see things in the painted walls of my bedroom.....I used to see a house and kids and dogs and cats and the color yellow(even though the paint was blue and white) and I used to see trees and things....I stopped my "seeings" b/c my mother caught me talking to the girl in the paint on my bedroom wall and told me that people would want me to be carted off somewhere where I couldn't have a pretty dress or a nice bed.......
I miss the girl I used to be before "society" took her away.....when I met you, we would always joke and say that we were "birds of a feather"......then the colors on my wings changed, and no more, but we are more alike that we would even like to admit to ourselves.......Thank you for giving me back my "innocent" self once more in your entry...you've just made my day.
Posted by: sharon at April 14, 2003 11:49 AMYep... (raises hand).
I know the feeling *exactly*. I still "see" shapes and figures in all kinds of random patterns. The most recent I saw are the "shouting monsters" on the polished wooden dashboard of a friend's car the other day.
I sometimes draw "messages" from these images, a connection to my intuition and subconscious mind, much like in the ancient art of "tea-leaf reading".
Sharon-Nicole, this is for you.
Yes, I believe you did in fact see some color other than blue on those kitchen walls, however it wasn't really yellow. You just weren't trained in art to see the complimentary colors that are always there when we look away.
Have you ever been to the science center and looked at the American flag of Green, Black and Orange? Stare at that for a while and then look away onto a white wall. What then happens is our eyes see the complimentary colors of that strange flag and the Red, White and Blue appear out of nowhere.
As for the voice of that girl in your wallpaper, well I can't help you with that one, but if you're a friend of our esteemed Ange, you have an imagination just like the rest of the people who are drawn to her.
Artist.
Correction to Sharon-Nicole
On your bedroom walls, not the kitchen.