Look Down!

Artists in any genre know that looking and seeing are totally different things. Looking is the process of merely being conscious on a very superficial level of what is in front of us. Seeing, on the other hand, starts with looking and then brings what falls onto our retinas into a deeper level of consciousness, a level where we think more deeply about what we see. A level where we start to interpret and think about what, as Minor White would say, “what else it is".

Our state of mind clearly influences looking vs. seeing. I’m one of the crazy 10,000 steps a day walkers, so I pass by things near my home frequently as I set out for a walk. And I have noticed that I can walk by something thousands of times and look at it, but barely take notice. Then, out of the blue, I will walk by the same thing for seemingly the millionth time and stop….and all of a sudden I’m seeing and not just looking. And just like that, I see art and abstracts in places where I’ve never seen them before. Like right in front of me. If I look down. At the sidewalk.

© Howard Grill

© Howard Grill

Another good reason to look down is the plethora of sidewalk poetry one can see these days, particularly in the city! Sometimes, it can stop and make you think!

Now that is some advice that I think is worth heeding!

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