Myopic Vision

" I believe that there is a kind of poetry, even a kind of truth in simple fact." -- Edward Abbey


Vision is the ability to see beyond the visible. It is not enough for an artist to have vision. What works is for the artist to find a way to share a vision, so that the viewers imagination is enriched because she knows the artist's paintings.

On a painting trip to the Grand Canyon I became restless and unhappy with any attempt to render that great vist on a small canvas. In general the more precise perscpective becomes the more monocular it becomes. Obviously photographs satisfy many people that they show the Grand Canyon. I don't understand how anyone who has actually stood at the rim, looked over that great expanse and into the mile deep chasm could think a photograph is the same or even similar.

After hiking a few hundred yards down Bright Angel Trail, I saw a tree stump that contained most of the energy and excitement I felt being at the Grand Canyon.

The general shape and lines of the stump were very close to the many mesas. I painted the stump using the colors of the canyon rather than its local colors. In an early version I had a distant mesa to echo the shape of the stump. This was dropped as being a pale example of the actual distances involved. The final version was cropped to contain only 3/4 of the stump.

So I went to the Grand Canyon and painted a tree stump. I call this myopic vision.

Alone a tree stump might have a hard time being seen as a stand in for the Grand Canyon. Still with a title like "Grand Canyon", "South Rim", or "Bright Angel", the hook is there. A viewer may indeed see marks that bring memories of the vista and her experience of it. It takes more connection on the viewers part and it may miss many viewers. But when it works, it can do more to share experience between artist and viewer than any photo realistic view ever could.