Perceptual Studies
Field Notes in Evolving Source Material
Sand Sketches
Simple charcoal drawings on top of the sand. A natural phenomenon, yes, but when so many are clustered together and looked at in a certain way, they come to resemble a group photo — something like a family portrait of nature spirits.
The dimension brought out into the light by beach grass, like multiple arrows pointing to the layers and depths that surface in time. Visuals that are there for us to discover. Faces that have perhaps been asking to be seen.
Rockside Resemblance
Some cultures believe the ancestors dwell within the rocks — that they have become part of the land. Sometimes seen by the naked eye, but often captured within a photograph.
A mixture, potentially, of these beings now transformed into the landscape, as well as pareidolic faces appearing as the trees lie flat against the white canvas of an overexposed sky.
Green Man
Perhaps resembling a faerie king or a Jacobite warrior who rests in quiet contemplation, facing the sun — this image seems strikingly obvious to most who are open to perceive.
Forest Faces
With his perfectly trimmed moustache, he greets me at the edge of a magical forest, showing me shifts in my perception as I glance down to what may have arrived before us.
Within the ground below him appears a creature with peculiar facial features. Emerging from the earth are our great symbolic and natural teachers.
It was only much later that I noticed pareidolic nature-spirit faces throughout the sunlit, moss-covered ground. The image feels like a reminder that long stretches of time can pass before certain details are finally seen.
Devil’s Beef Top
Animal faces on an enormous natural canvas. Who are the artists that so precisely placed the plants and organic matter to create such an image?
My perception expands to see a massive cow’s head in the valley at what the locals call Devil’s Beef Top. With the sorrow of so many animals said to have fallen here, it feels as though the animal spirits have created a natural memorial — visible only to those who are able to see.
Heart Land
A panoramic scene of a nearly perfect heart-shaped loch, reflecting the deep blue sky and protected by snow-capped mountains. In the browned grasses of the foreground, a smaller inverted heart shape catches my eye, along with a hint of nature-spirit pareidolia.
I often come across heart-shaped stones, puddles, and plant forms in nature, yet this may be the largest heart form I have ever witnessed. From my vantage point, the loch appeared unmistakably heart-shaped — a rare and beautiful moment of natural resonance.