The Daily Spectrum - Kaleidoscope Eyes

The words to a song are inspiring are today. As a child, I owned a kaleidoscope. It was full of bright colors and changed geometric patterns with a twist of the bottom. It was a cylinder shape with mirrors inside containing colored objects like beads, pebbles, or bits of glass. As the viewer looks in one end, the light from the opposite end creates the patterns, due to the reflection in the mirrors. The root "Kalos" means beauty in ancient Greek... and "Edios" means that which is seen in a form or shape. Finally, "Skopeo"  is to look at.

In basic terms, a kaleidoscope is a series of a repeated patterns. The pattern remains the same throughout, yet the image becomes a mirrored view. Our eyes work in much the same way - we see an object in light, it passes through the cornea. The mirrored image is produced upside down until the brain as well as the optic nerve straighten things out, add depth of field, and color.

In its most simplistic aspect, art is beauty in shape and form. Like a diamond which has many facets, an abstract drawing may have many meaning depending on the viewer. One may see hot air balloons to carry them up and away; another may see seed pods in the center of a flower.

Look on art with your inner vision - and let it move you.

Until next time,
The happy painter,
Jill