Tilled Dream With Sleeping Cat

The processes of motivated reasoning during sleep can allow people to form and cling to false beliefs despite overwhelming evidence. During this phenomenon rather than search rationally for information that either confirms or disconfirms a particular emotion, one actually seeks out that which confirms what is already believed. This is a form of implicit emotion in which the brain converges on judgments that minimize negative and maximize positive affect states associated with attainment of ones motives . . . and motivation to arrive at a desired conclusion provides a level of arousal, which acts as an initial trigger for the operation of cognitive processes. Historically, motivated reasoning theory identifies that directional goals enhance the accessibility of knowledge structures (memories, information, knowledge) that are consistent with ones desired conclusions . . . much like the dilled dreams of a sleeping cat. Each photograph in this still life Series is of found ephemera staged, lighted and photographed on my studio work table. Further, it is my habit to crush or cut up waste materials before discarding them and often I throw some of that ephemera onto my studio work table just to see what serendipitous visual surprises I may discover. If what I see holds my attention I photograph it. By chance among the objects on the table the day the Tilled Dream With Sleeping Cat Series was photographed were several different gauges of wire, assorted pieces of thin plastic, bits of cellophane food wrappers, a piece of fabric netting, filter fibres and a broken mardi-gras mask. The light passing through and around this odd assortment of objects held them together in an engaging way. I photographed the random grouping then shuffled it about to see if the effect held in a new arrangement. It did, so I photographed them again and repeated the process several times . . . occasionally adding and or discarding objects as I proceeded … ending with this enchanting series whose visual appeal transcends its social statement about our consumer-centric society and concentrates on the illusive fantasy within the chaos . . . or to put it another way . . . bordering on restrained hysteria, traversing margins, crisscrossing and navigating through peripheries beyond the frontiers of stabile equilibrium. . . in search of blissful, joyous grace.