On Perspective & Vanishing Points
(The Spiritual Practice of Art and Revelations + an Artist's Deck update)
“In order to understand ourselves, others, and the world around us, we need to be able to change and adapt our perspectives.”
-Albert Einstein
Many moons ago, when I was in grade school, I was lucky enough to have an art teacher who had no room in her heart for the cries of a frustrated student determined that they couldn’t do whatever-the-assignment-of-the-day happened to be. Here’s what I remember about her: she had silky ropes of braided, silvery hair that she wore both up and down, depending on the day, and she moved through the classroom like an angel. She seemed to float. And, she was abundantly kind. I know she was kind because when my dominant left hand refused to perform the practice of calligraphy, she stopped by my table and gently suggested that I switch the calligraphy pen to my right hand, and see what happened.
With my left hand, I was incapable of creating the same swoopty letters on my page as everyone else seemed to be doing with ease, and this art teacher had the grace to bend to a struggling child and offer a new way of doing things. Before her suggestion, I had one perspective of the fine art of calligraphy—that I was incapable of it. But my silver-haired angel offered me a new perspective. Handedness is rooted in the brain, and when that pen switched in my hands, something internal shifted forever.
As I’ve been working on these cards for my Artist’s Deck, I’ve found (at least, lately) that I have been drawn to words pertaining to vision. A friend asked the other day if I had a theme for my cards and I said not entirely—or not intentionally, but, if I may say this without sounding too woo-woo, the cards of late reveal a theme that I haven’t been conscious of.
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