Art Reboot

45 7 the vi s ion thing When Leonardo da Vinci said there were three classes of people – those who see, those who see when they are shown, and those who do not see – he was not referring only to their optical ability. Artistic vision is how the mind sees, not just the eyes. The more creative people are, the more they see things differently. The moment one begins to draw or paint, one is forced to look more piercingly at the world and its details. The average person looks at a tree and sees a tree. They may identify it as a particular type, or characterise it as big, lush, old, beautiful. The artist looks at it and sees patterns of branches arranged in a natural symphony of lines, varieties of green, the shifting lace of shadows. With access to the visionary realm, colour can be changed, form simplified, patterns abstracted, texture emphasised, line set loose to dance wildly. The spirit of the tree lives in these patterns; the artist expresses not just the surface, but what is hidden from ordinary view. But it goes deeper than that. Ansel Adams (1902–1984): You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.