Project Overview
It can be incredibly challenging to fully grasp or visualize how an particular animal experiences and perceives the world. Every animal has unique physical traits, senses, motivations, and perspectives that are vastly different from our own. Being able to step outside our inherently human, self-centered worldview can be extremely difficult, even for those who interact with animals daily.
The reality is every animal on this planet experiences the world in totally different ways from our own. What does the world look like through their eyes? How do their senses diverge from our own? What behaviors do animals exhibit that gives us clues to what they are experiencing? To truly understand an animal, it is critical to understand what their point of view is and how they might perceive the world.
What fuels my imagination are my own observations of animals plus scientific studies of animals sensory abilities and behavior. Being able to understand the science is crucial to my work but the final result may or may not represent what the science has concluded. Scientific studies, articles and books aid in my knowledge and inspire me to explore and imagine how a particular animal might experience the world.
Being an artist gives me the absolute freedom to create a vision that is entirely my own. This is the joy of creating and what it means to be an artist.
The initial spark for this project came about from two very different areas of influence:
1. The danger of anthropomorphism.
I’m concerned by the proliferation of a Disney like culture that portrays all animals as cute and cuddly seen in many social media posts and reels. I cringe when I see some of these posts of people interacting with animals in a way that seems stupid and even dangerous. I’m sad when I see how everything needs to be saved at all costs, like 2-legged dogs. It appears that anthropomorphism or giving human characteristics to non-humans has increased, or perhaps I’m more aware of the trend because of social media. The danger of anthropomorphism is animals are not seen as animals nor able to express their true natures. Unrealistic expectations are put upon them as we project our own experiences on them. Check out my blog for an article on this topic.
2. The book: My Stroke of Insight, by Jill Bolte Taylor PhD.
One year I was driving from New Mexico to Arizona along one of those endless empty roads. I was listening to the audible version of the book “A Stroke of Insight, by Jill Bolte Taylor, PhD”. She had a stroke that affected the left side of her brain. The description of her experience was a complete epiphany for me. The ability of the right side of our brain to see objects, lifeforms as energy rather than as solid form changed my entire worldview. Her experience sparked the idea that perhaps some animals are capable of experiencing the world as energy. This generated many questions and lots of images and this project began. Please refer to my blog for more details and the influence of the book to this project.
I believe that being able to step outside of our narrow world view and imagine what an animal’s point of view might be will change us for the better.
dogs are predators
Series 1: dogs
The paintings in Series 1, have been created utilizing a limited palette of blue, yellow and purples to represent how dogs might view the world. I used my dog Violet as she explores the land surrounding my home as my model. She’s a young Belgium Sheepdog with a ton of energy and an extremely high prey drive. There are many deer living in the neighborhood and Violet wants to chase them.
Unlike humans, who possess three cones for color perception, dogs have two cones, sensitive to blue and yellow wavelengths. Dogs can detect some ultraviolet light as well. Scientific understanding suggests that dogs see the world in shades of blue, yellow, and gray with reds appearing as muddy yellow and greens as white. Perhaps, dogs have other visual abilities we’re unable to perceive, like seeing energy fields or auras. I’ve diverged from science to represent what I imagine a dog might see.
I’m unable to paint smell nor sound and we know from observations and science that dogs have extraordinary sense of smell and superior hearing ability compared to ours. There is also some research to suggest dogs have infrared sensors in their noses, but the precise function and purpose of these sensors remain unresolved. We see things from a higher vantage point because dogs generally are closer to the ground. Other visual differences fro our own include binocular overlap, field of view, visual acuity, the ability to function in dim light, flicker fusion, and ability to detect motion.
For this initial set of paintings I played with color perception and prey instinct. The next set of dog paintings I intend to focus on merging all of their sensory abilities with behavior characteristics to create an imaginary world full of mystery, light and magic.
animals that are prey
Series 2: Cows and Donkeys
For the paintings I was fascinated with the idea that prey animals have this wide range of vision that extends to about 350°. Although approximately 65° is binocular vision where they will have the sharpest area. I did not show that in my paintings. The remaining 285° is monocular vision so they see the world differently from each eye. Horse people like me know this to be a fact because we’ve experienced it. We know that we need to show a horse objects on both eyes otherwise they might spook at an object with one eye but not with the other.
These animals have two-color, or dichromatic vision. Like dogs, they have two color receptors for blue and yellow. We have three, red, green and blue. They might see color like a color-blind person. But, I wonder, are prey animals capable of seeing green? Why not? green is the color of their food and green is everywhere. Why wouldn’t they be able to see vivid shades of green. Colors are created in the brain so perhaps they see things wildly different from what scientific studies have concluded. But, I’m only speculating. It is true that they have a more limited color perception than us, but they have other visual gifts we don’t have. They see ultraviolet light and they see much better in the dark. They have huge eyes used to pick up the slightest movement.
birds can see what we cannot even imagine
Series 3: Birds
It is difficult to conceive what it would be like to have four-dimensional color vision. Birds “have this depth of richness that we can’t begin to imagine,” says Richard Prum, of the University of Kansas. “When my ornithology students ask ‘What does this color look like to a bird?’ I have to answer, ‘You will never know, you cannot know.’ It’s like asking what the music of bats sounds like.
https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/50/10/854/233996
It’s not just difficult to visualize how a bird might see the world, it’s impossible. Science has developed some cameras and calculations that supposedly visualize birds additional color abilities but the images tend to look flat and wrong. If we could really see how birds see I imagine a sharper, more vivid, and truly amazing world. Seeing any images on a monitor also degrades the images further.
I’m exploring the concept of bird vision but starting simple to see where it goes. Please refer to the science section for additional information and direction. This will be exciting!
Roadrunners: Brown birds, like a roadrunner could perhaps look really colorful to another roadrunner. They might not be brown at all. I painted the roadrunners in imaginary colors. The reality is we are incapable of seeing how they might see themselves.
Vultures: How does a bird experience the air and sky? What if they are aware and could see air currents and wind?