PAREIDOLIA IN NATURE: ABSTRACT BEINGS - A Subseries of Vibrant Night (Light Painting Landscapes)

Pareidolia is the illusion of things appearing as something else (eg., faces in clouds). It's one way the brain deals with ambiguous patterns and has long been used in art, including the creation and decoding of some types of abstract art. And it's one part of my main body of work, Vibrant Night (Light Painting Landscapes): a part that suggests abstract illusory beings. This part offers the best visual metaphor for my vibrancy theme of everything seeming alive and striving in nature – a view common to some Eastern religions and historic Native American beliefs. (See Professor of Botany and Native American Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book “Braiding Sweetgrass” for similar views.) To me, this visual metaphor also suggests that we should respect nature as if all things were alive and capable of influencing Earth's ecosystems (akin to the Gaia theory). However, pareidolia is subjective and you may see something quite different, if anything. That's why my titles have question marks. (For the most fun, look for any pareidolic creatures before reading the titles.) More generally, since 2013 I've explored nature areas at night and its border zones, mainly in Texas, seeking fresh visions via a technique known as "light painting." Using long exposures during which I selectively "paint" with light beams, I especially like to go beyond the ordinary to reveal the uncommon potential of common scenes: The world as surreal, otherworldly. And whether illusory or not, I sense a spirit and vitality – a "vibrancy" -- in all things. Using lights of different color temperatures and extensive post-processing, I expressionistically stylize my photos to imply these notions. And to me, this transformation offers a visual metaphor to a psychological concept: Things can seem different if seen in a different light – the concept of "cognitive reframing."