The Nearsighted Artist

I think I've determined why I love to paint big colorful pictures and include lots of tiny details in them like honeybees and spider websand ants carrying dinner back to their homes.

Sparrows, grapes and ants along a cafe sidewalk mural.

A honeybee and caterpillar hiding in the flowers.

I have been extremely nearsighted all my life. I gravitated to the tiny things which I could see with my face close to the ground or other surface; the texture of things, the sparkle in a rock, the sharp grains of sand in dirt, the lovely beauty of a dandelion about to send out its seeds. I marveled at the miniature world ignored by so many. This particular mural contains several caterpillars, numerous ants, a snail, many birds and their nests, eggs and babies, a praying mantis and colorful butterflies.

On the other hand, the larger world about me seemed to be made up of great blobs of color, those that moved on two longer blobs were people. Add in a hearty dose of ADHD and the color of an object became the easiest way to find objects in those early years. I still track color much more quickly than shapes or lines. 

I remember the awe when my first glasses revealed LEAVES on TREES! I no longer mistook deer for large brown dogs, didn't have to put my face an inch away from my books, (although, it's still the best way to read!) and could actually see what was written on the chalkboard at school.

There was another awesome discovery- I noticed things in a way that others didn't; beautiful halos around street lamps and Christmas trees, rainbow reflections from the smallest of things- the blond hair on my arms refracting light in all directions and hues, the crack in the car's windshield throwing rainbows through the dirty lenses. It became magical, a world full of my own discoveries. I try to include that sense of wonder in my work.

Fairy bath teacup 

And so, the magic of being a nearsighted artist continues as I paint tiny surprises in large colorful splotches!