The Artist’s Eye

I hadn’t thought about this phrase in years, until a good friend said “I need your artist’s eye (on this project)” What is this, really?

I think it has to do with being able to look at a space— composition—as a whole at first. We take that in, make incredibly fast judgements about the arrangement/layout, then focus in on details that aren’t coming together: color, shape, texture, patterns, relationships. We see the elements in the room or on the screen or in the yard as spots of color, shape, etc., not just as mere objects.

It’s a bit like feng shui, the Chinese practice of arranging pieces in living spaces to create balance with the natural world. The goal is to establish harmony between an individual and their environment.

How does this ability happen? Is it innate, as in you have it or you don’t, hard-wired from the start? Or is the artist’s eye developed over time? Nature or nurture?

Speaking for myself, I think it’s a combination of the two. My artist’s eye, my ability to see something and make an instant artistic read, has become stronger and faster over time. But I also know that I make an effort to have a conscious awareness at times of looking at things in this way, on purpose.

To me that is practice, and the more you do something, the stronger the connections become. The synapses build and branch off. It’s like any muscle memory; if you practice shooting threes for years, it becomes “second nature”; you don’t need to think about how you’re taking that shot. You just do it.

-art work by Cayce Zavaglia