By Ellen Sherfey
MAA member

On and off work, all artists cultivate fresh perspectives, heightening awareness to increase range of expression in art and life. A gift they have in common is simultaneous access to impressions from all nerve-paths through natural “lateral thinking.” With consciously selective intuition, artists collect these internal traces of “lateral” moments into focused, tangible expression.

Forest in Fall - View from Below by Frederica Weiner (watercolor)

Just by gazing up, familiar parallel lines dramatically converge to a vanishing point, the experience of which sparks whole body sensations from the sudden transformation. The scintillating colors of Frederica’s watercolor perfectly depicts the wide-eyed delight.

 Particles by Ellen Sherfey (alkyd oil)

Continual sparks of incoming neural transmissions “instantaneously” link into individualized pathways, so memories, ways of thinking, etc. seem to "pool and pour" instinctively. Yet knowing the processes, it’s clear that by challenging or questioning the truth or viewpoints of resultant thoughts, their chemo-electrical components may reorganize and readapt through “plasticity.”

Returning to last month's post, spirals are relatively compared not only to brain function but in establishing states of consciousness. Researchers consider the potential for the brain to have quantum-functionality beyond the physical through fractalizing electron-flow in inter-webbing, reiterating branches.

Coming up: MAA artist Sandhya Sharma discusses How the “Abstract” Enhances Realistic Painting in an Oasis workshop on March 28 (10:30 am-12 pm). What are the design “tools” in abstraction that strengthen realistic imagery? Concrete examples from established artworks bring clarity to the talk in Oasis’ large projection room. Sandhya's session is produced by Washington Metropolitan Oasis in conjunction with MAA. Register today.

MAA's members show at the Oasis Gallery in the Macy's Home Store at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Maryland runs through April 15. The gallery is open Monday-Thursday, 11 am-4 pm.