Learning to See

[Clifford Black]

There's something that's very intense about
the experience of sitting down and having to
look at something in the way that you do in
order to make a drawing or a painting of it.
By the time you've done that, you feel
that you've really understood what you were
looking at...and somehow it becomes a
method of possessing the experience in a
unique way.

-Robert Battle


There is distinct difference between the physical eye and what it sees and the inner eye and what it envisions, and yet the two most often work together in a seamless symbiosis.

It is essential that we learn to see through all our senses rather than simply looking with our eyes alone.

If we draw what we think the shape should be rather than what we see, our intellects are working against our eyes and we have defeated the purpose of truly seeing. Our physical eyes tell us what we see, our intellects tell us what we think we see--- and these can be at war with each other in the creative process. Experienced artists use their physical eyes to give them accurate and highly detailed information. The inner eye---the eye of the soul---then, if desired, embellishes the information given by the physical eye. This is called expression, and at this stage, has nothing to do with intellect.

It is possible that there are several types of seeing modes that people engage in, either naturally or otherwise. First, there are those for whom the gift of seeing is inherent in their makeup and they have exercised this ability since early childhood. Second, there are those who understand the need to see artistically and have been trained to see beyond their natural abilities. Finally, there are those people who do not have the ability or the desire to see any differently.

The physical eye assesses and establishes the rudiments of compositional structure.

The eye of the mind (soul) interceded, penetrates, and prevails in places uninhabitable by the physical eye alone.

[Marion Hooper (Mikii)]

Cliff sometimes I feel as if I'm purposely blinded physically because my mind refuses to believe what the eyes are clearly seeing. This is in my judgment, borderline madness or my inability to accept most things presented to me over the years i.e. programmed dumbness. Those of us who think we are being creative oftimes I think are the maddest of the mad. Self included but still we rise. Just some random thoughts of one fighting daily to retain a degree of sanity and share with my progeny.

[Sammie James McDaniel jr.]

Sam here. I sometimes I find the the physical eye distracting to what is turely happening so after marking my reference points I close my eyes to see. And sometimes it affords one a good nap.

[Clifford Black]

Now that is real MEDI-tation
(B)

[Aaron (Al) Lewis]

Doc, a few years ago in most malls they were selling these abstract posters with various geometric designs on them. I mean they were really involved designs. The instructions prompted you to stare at a certain spot for a few seconds and low and behold if an entirely different picture wouldn't emerge. I mean like landscapes of cities or outer space, but they were really intricate designs behind the picture.

The odd thing was some people could never master the technique of the different perceptual look. They would stare and stare and only see what was on the surface.

[Clifford Black]

Reminds you of the people who are just wasting God's time by showing up and asking a bunch of crazy questions that have absolutely no meaning. Relativity is a very important concept to comprehend.
(B) And it is!!!!
And in some case studies "IS NOT".
OBEONECANNOBE the MASTER JEDI WARRIOR.

[Aaron (Al) Lewis]

So what happens when one is taught how to see and what they really see is shocking, it rocks their reality, it shakes up their pretty little concept of fair play, it shatters their hopes? The world as it is is not a pretty place especially if you are poor and powerless. The curse comes when you really start to see and you realize that no one is listening. It's kind of like the original 1950s movie The Body Snatchers. The star was warning everyone about the people who had been hatched from seed pods, not real people at all. No one believed him.

It's a damn curse to see what is without blinking, to stare what is dead in the face and to have people in stark denial of the facts who will argue with you without ever looking for themselves. Oh how lonely, how agonizing goddamn lonely it is. If one can actually see what is then one can predict with some accuracy what might be. That is what truly separates man from animals, man's ability to follow a trail, to read the events of that trail and to predict with some accuracy where that trail will lead and what may happen at the conclusion of that trail.

Since most of us are not hunters and gatherers any longer we have different trails to consider. The trails of society, the trail of civilization where they have been, where they are and where they are headed and please don't forget who is going on that trail with you.

I have never thought of myself as a brilliant man. I have thought of myself as a courageous man that in spite of my fears of what I might find I'd look anyway. Well I have been to the mountain top also and I am hear to tell you King was wrong, the promise land looks like a Goddamn minefield from my vantage point. I see why he didn't want to get their with us we were sold a bill of goods about this integration bit and there was going to be hell to pay across Jordan.

[Clifford Black]

Right now I am hearing the temps singing POWER!!!!!!!
Oh! and by the way, I can see the mines so watch where you are steppin!!
(B)
I have trained someone to clear the mines but I am thinking that it may be a useless activity to deploy the few really trained soldiers that we have left. The Art of War tells us to be careful with our last few warriors.

[B. Crittenden Freeman]

"Most of us have a difficult time with this idea. We assume that if someone fails to see things the way we do, they are simply wrong or misguided or confused. It isn’t that simple. Differences in ways of seeing can be important and profound."

[Aaron (Al) Lewis]

Kind of like the indigenous people on the beach in the Caribbean when the Spaniards were docked in the bay. Only the shaman saw the ships initially, the others were not trained to see what their brains could not handle. The fact was the ships were there and just because they cold not see them didn't mean they were not about to get annihilated. I'm not talking about judgment here, I am talking about facts.

Kind of like walking down Dunlap and Mosby a real bad part of Memphis, TN and I may can see signs you may not be able to read that we are about to get jacked. We can stand there and argue about we see things differently or we can get busy running or fighting. It is all relative. By the way both of those stories have elements of truth in them, in that they really happened. The person was not you, but someone both of us know. He was about to get robbed. I tried to warn him. He couldn't see it until the gun was almost at his head. He then saw it.

[Rashonda Lewis (Moore)]

The question that always comes up for me is why do people see what they see? A friend of mine likes to say, "what you see depends on where your seat is at the table." The key is to take a walk around the table, go under the table and gain a 360 degree perspective. The truth is the truth is the truth. But most of the times you've got to get out of your "assigned" seat to see it.

[Aaron (Al) Lewis]

get out of your "assigned" seat to see it. --- And who is the assigner?

[Rashonda Lewis (Moore)]

Parents, schools, politicians....all the folks and systems who have attempted to define who we should be and how we should see things.