Looking With More Than Your Eyes

Here's a photo I took yesterday morning on my way to Spanish Village. Because of the December Nights festivities, we were asked to park in the San Diego Zoo parking lot and walk over from there. This is a view along the walkway that connects the two. Those palms grow all over San Diego County. Well, really, they grow all over the world, but I think they came to California from Mexico. We're fortunate that our mild climate allows us to import so many interesting and diverse plants from around the world. I know that some of them are a danger to the indigenous plants and we need to take that into consideration, but certain plants that grow in a controlled situation are probably safe, as long as they don't spread or bring bugs with them.

Yesterday I got to Spanish Village around 9:00 a.m. and stayed until nearly 10:30 p.m. And it will be the same today as well. It's a long day for those of us who are here five days a week, but we have lots of visitors and that helps us in the long run, because they come back again on more "normal" days. Events like this also bring out our members who aren't here all the time. It's nice to see them, talk to them, and see what they've been doing with their artwork. And they in turn have exposure to lots of visitors.

I spent the day working on jewelry. The problem I ran into when it got dark was the light. I brought two of my lamps outside from my studio, and they helped. But I still had to stop working on the little tiny wire and work on something a little easier to see. I'm very fortunate because I don't need glasses to work. I was always very nearsighted when I was younger. When I turned 40, I started to get farsighted, the way everyone does. But what happened was that one remained relatively nearsighted while the other became farsighted. So I can see well up close and at a distance. I'm sure as I get older still, I'll have a problem, but right now I take advantage of my eyesight to work on my art.

One of the artists who is set up on the patio is a plein air painter. He goes out in his motor home to various locations in the back country and paints, sometimes for days at a time. I admit it makes me yearn to paint again. And maybe at some point I will. I'm sure that my eyesight would affect what I see and what I paint. There's talk about the fact that Monet may have painted the way he did, because of his eyesight. He was most likely very nearsighted.

But whether Monet was nearsighted or not, the fact remains that everyone's eye is different. Everyone sees the world in a different way, and we each have a contribution to make in our own "voice," seeing with our unique "eye." That's what I learned from all the writing I did. And I see that it applies to any art form.