Sometimes, it isn’t a matter of what you see, but how you see it. Perception can be a funny thing. Often, Mr. F & I will watch the same movie but get something totally different from it. Or we’ll look at a scene and I’ll zero in on one thing, while his eye notices another. The simplicity of these paintings by Isabel Bigelow remind me that what each eye focuses on is as unique as the person they belong to.
Bigelow zeros in on simple shapes, isolating them against monochromatic backgrounds, leaving us to wonder– am I seeing what I think I’m seeing? Or am I seeing something else entirely? The shapes become even more ambiguous when we turn the paintings on their sides or upside down.
But maybe that’s a good thing, this act of seeing differently. We can focus too closely on our own perceptions, forgetting that there are other angles of viewing. Not wrong, just different.
If you’d like to see more of Isabel Bigelow‘s work, please check out her work on the Sears Peyton Gallery website.
All images via the Sears Peyton Gallery website.
