Illusions

It's all illusion: the illusion of space, the illusion of mass, the illusion of light. The illusions go on and on, there is no limit to the number of illusions you can come up with. (Joseph P. Blodgett)

I had a person tell me recently that they enjoy my work and that they were in awe of what I could create on paper. I tried to explain the reality of the process, but they were firm in their belief that I have some internal gift that allows me to turn paper into art.

We all have the ability to draw and we have all drawn as children, but somewhere after childhood, the ability or interest seems to get lost or is dampened by unkind comments or comparisons by ourselves to others and we abandon drawing.

Yes, there is an illusion in art. It is in the eye of the viewer. They see, they believe. The blue of a bug's wing or the blue of a skyscape, where is the difference? The viewer sees transparency, or lack of colour, in an insect's wing. I see blue or grey or whatever colour the wing lies over. The finished result is transparency. Illusion and truth. It depends which side of the paper you're on.

There is no illusion in the image here. It is a northern goshawk that took one of the chickens in the yard. It had been around for months trying its luck and even flew right into the barn after the chickens at one point. This day, its luck was in and it caught a bird. The hawk is large with about a 3 foot wingspan. They are beautiful birds, even if it did take one of the chickens. It 'cloaks' its prey when eating, to hide it from others. The photo was taken with the zoom on the camera so its a little out of focus, but does show the size and strength of the bird.

Technorati tags: illusion, art, goshawk