We do not see things as they are.
We see them as we are. -Anais Nin,

A giant of literature, the late Ms. Nin articulated one of our most confusing existential issues: Why do you & I see the same picture in different ways?

Further, how can we have potentially opposite reactions? You may experience the light as comforting. I may find it lonely depressing.

How many candles are pictured? The "reality" is one is "real" the other electronic.

The painting is abstract. Thus, our viewing experience may diverge even more widely. 

How many kinds of light are portrayed? One viewer may count three. A second might add the window light. A third may include the painting as light. A fourth may say "infinite."

The tableau offers autumn hues. The vast majority of southerners love autumn. Based on life experience I feel the opposite. 

The most healing caregivers are those whose radical loving care honors the humanity of all beings, not just those like them. 

My current art exhibit at Vanderbilt Divinity School is billed as a visual essay of a new Messiah – what my imagination sees. It invites viewers to consider what they would like to see in a new Messiah, as perhaps contrasted with what I see.

Some love it. Others, failing to engage the exercise, insist my creations are narrow & wrong. Who it "right?"

"We do not see things as they are./ We see them as we are."

-Erie Chapman

Photograph, "Autumn Light" – Erie, 2019

Painting, Minton Sparks, 2017