Proposition: Perspective and Perception

From the start I wanted to come up with a concept where I could take an abstract thought and then apply it visually in a physical way. So originally my concept was along the lines of “hope and despair” but I’ve decided to change it. Now I have decided that the concept to my project will be “perception”, and with this theme of perception I will still be keeping with the idea of taking an abstract concept and revealing it in physical or literal way. What I want to do with exploring “perception” is to bring to life visually things and feelings that have no physical form. I plan on doing this in a series of drawings that represent things such as emotions, delusions, stress, and atmosphere in the forms of monster, spirits, and abstract shapes.

For my drawings I hope to continue to use the 9” by 12” format. The materials I plan on using may range from pencil, charcoal, micron pen and possibly other materials if it seems appropriate. I will strive to use a variety of line strokes and methods to alter how an image is perceived. I also want to use shading and significant contrast between light and dark to create dynamic images that help portray the meaning behind it.

Another reason as to why the concept of perception is appealing to me is because of how open ended it is. In any one given circumstance one person will perceive how something happens completely different to how another does. Here is an example, imagine a scenario where a mother brings her child shopping with her (which is obviously fairly common) and this child sees a toy he really wants. So what he does is start complaining and making a huge scene to his mother about how he really wants it, of course his mother doesn’t give in and the child is left bitter. In this situation the child doesn’t have a full understanding as to why he isn’t allowed to have or not have the toy and because of this it seems unfair to him. The mother is probably really annoyed, or at least slightly embarrassed because of her child’s behavior. She doesn’t see why the toy seems so important to him because he already has so many toys similar to it and she knows that he will get tired of it quickly anyways. On-lookers will have a different perspective on this scenario, some will think the child is spoiled based on how he resorted to complaining so easily, and others will think that the mother is being too hard on her child; after all, it is just a toy. How people perceive such a scenario is largely based on their own experiences, due to the fact that we have all been young and naive, everyone ends up having an opinion on the matter.

Another example would be a person wants to play a prank on his friend so he sneaks into his friend’s house through the back window. A neighbor sees this and thinks his neighbor is being robbed and so he calls the police adding a level of irony to the matter. This can be seen as a misunderstanding from the perspective of the neighbor or an example of poor judgment on the side of the prankster.

Inevitably everything ends up as a matter of perception. Something has meaning because we first perceived that meaning. Something has worth because we perceive it to have worth.