Easter scribble modified.
by Trish Neil
I am wondering if other people see what I see in these scribbly bark images. It’s a matter of perception, of figure/ground differentiation; what seems figurative to me is perhaps an abstract and meaningless mess of lines to many others.
Maybe I can make it clearer like this:
This is the image:
And this is the image again. I have darkened all the ‘background’ areas, and emphasized the left ‘eye’.
Does that make it clearer? Can you see the connection with Easter? It is a peculiarity of perception that once your brain has ‘seen’ something which makes sense to it in an otherwise random pattern, especially a face, you keep seeing only that face and it looks really obvious to you – but not necessarily to anyone else. I would love some feedback on this.
Trish Neil 
Awesome!
This is a very beautiful photograph/image you’ve captured. It’s like an inlay in tree. I think it’s like two things. I see an emergent mythical bird – the pheonix arising from ashes. And I see a fat, frilly necked caterpillar, the kind known as “spit-fires” to children, which this one is doing!
Oh, that’s amazing! To me it looks like a Christ face, with a crown of thorns (not that I’m a Christian, it’s purely a matter of iconography). I really love the phoenix idea, I can see that, and the spit-fire caterpillar. Thank you for your comments; I am really happy that you see things not as I do, as long as the scribble insects’ Rorschach test teases something alive in your imagination!
I didn’t see the face, but I got a rather cute duckling with a squashed left-wing!
Lovely photo nevertheless.
Thanks! Can’t really see the duckling, but nice thought.
Hi Trish, I saw your intriguing images on the Saatchi website and found my way to your blog. I am very interested in the way our brains perceive faces etc., in natural forms. I think in some way our brains are pre-programmed to do this. I am inspired to paint from nature and recently have been looking closely at dried plants, bits of shells and other such ephemera. I would love to get up close and draw your trees one day. I am thinking that I will put some of my paintings on the Saatchi site. You can also see some of my work at the site mentioned below.
Hi Chris, thanks for your comment. I agree that we are programmed to see faces in this way – there is a proper psychological term for it, but it doesn’t spring immediately to mind. And it doesn’t really matter what it’s called, because as artists we are more interested in the way it makes us see than in the technicalities. I love your fish drawing, and would like to see more. I have found the Saatchi site easy to use, though as usual, generating sales is not easy!