Day three - what didn't we see today?

I found this sheep's skull while walking Jess my dog today. My current art work contains a sheep's carcass, where the skull  is prominent. "We only see what we are ready to see". My artwork had my eyes ready "to see" the skull today, normally it may have gone unnoticed and not really seen.  "You have eyes but you see not". Mostly we only "see" a fragment of what passes our vision.  We all have selective vision and subconsciously filter out most visual information. Things we see either grab our attention, or we are ready to "be looking". This is what the phrase "keeping and eye out" really means. We are actively  and attentively on standby, ready to see. ___________________________________ This is the skull  I came across, and because I am currently using a sheep's skull in my art,  I didn't miss seeing it.  What I have seen, you too now see. We really do need each other to see things. Art is a way of seeing. Riding on the Sheep's Back II The sheep's skull is at the forefront of my art work. yet to be completed. I needed a real sheep's skull to see its colour and construction. No wonder I saw what I was looking at!!

Today as I headed off to painting class and stood at the tram stop I looked across to where the bulldozers were at work where once stood a little house where an old man spent several hours of each day standing at his front gate chatting to the passers-by.  Thoughts came to mind which I put into this poem. 12 May 2011 Claws of Progress A giant steel claw gouges another streaked swathe across the orange clay and drags the jettisoned debris into forlorn heaps of rubble. I stand at the tram stop opposite and see again the little house wedged between the bookends of a changing world – and there is old Nick leaning on the front gate just as his father did, and his grandfather. He chats to all the passers-by – a ready smile, a cheerful word about the weather or the way of the world. Old Nick was a character, an institution, a legend – and when he went the bulldozers moved in and destroyed, in a few mangling minutes, what generations had lovingly created. The loaded truck lurches out into the busy road as the yellow man swivels his circular sign from ‘slow’ to ‘stop’. I wish! Tim Murray _____________________________________________ I had some folk come into Pearl's gallery today - (the Pearl Red Moon Gallery). They were so enthusiastic and spent a good 45 minutes carefully studying each of her artworks. They gave attention to every detail and I became aware that their attentiveness was very "active seeing". A little while later, some other people turned up and hurriedly  glanced at the artworks. I am not sure if they saw anything of Pearl's work in those fleeting moments. All I know is they didn't really comprehend what they were viewing nor did they "see" what the earlier visitors saw. Same artwork but entirely different perceptions. "Seeing IS in the eye of the beholder"

Could this be the origin of '3' ?

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     The day's Postscript  

• I had the most delightful phone conversation with Tim and Anne Murray tonight.  Tim was more than pleased to make his poems available for my blog. Thank you Tim.  There will be many more to be published on my blog. I find his imagery evocative and provocative - beautifully holding moments in time still enough to visualise.
• My friend Leslie Wand whom I call "my computer help desk", solved an issue on my computer in two minutes, which I had spent two hours trying to solve! Thank heaven there are people like Leslie in this world.
• I hope to see things more fully.......