What you see is what you get, we say, but are we seeing or getting even half of what’s out there, or in here? In an overly stimulated visual entertainment world, the passionately observant eccentric, James Elkins, says even though we overlook so many things and shut out most of the world around us, our eyes don’t stop seeing.
The challenge is to train ourselves to use our eyes to see different. In an Old Master painting, he looks through the picture for the craquelure, the fine network of cracks that form on the surface of the paint and tell a story all its own.
Have you noticed how postage stamps are little universes unto themselves, “compressing,” he says, “the larger worlds of art and politics into a square half-inch.” To begin to see the little buds on twigs during winter as “armor plating against the cold.” To notice how intricate and flexible a shoulder is and all the wide variety of shapes the night sky can have.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
James Elkins, Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and author of “How to Use Your Eyes.”