Myopia, Miles Johnston
Art is the conscious use of skill, creative imagination, and human expression to produce objects, environments, or experiences that evoke emotion, communicate ideas, or meet aesthetic criteria. One piece can have several different meanings depending on who is looking at it. This is what makes art such an amazing form of expression. What one person sees as beautiful, another may see as confusing or uninteresting. Art can also be found in so many different forms. Fashion, painting, crocheting or knitting, drawing, and so much more. Due to art being so open to interpretation, analyzing a piece involves looking beyond what is shown at face value.
This piece of artwork is by Miles Johnston, which is named Myopia. This piece uses value in order to draw attention to separate parts of the piece. In art, value is the visible lightness and darkness of a color. For example, in this piece white is the lightest value and black is the darkest. The lighter shade on top of the eyeball, with a slow gradient to darker towards the bottom, helps create a 3D effect known as an illusion of light. The flowers being lighter allow them to stand out against the darker grass. The darker shades towards the back of the person within the eyeball allows for a disappearing effect. Instead of feeling as if the person is a 2D shape, the use of the darker shape allows the brain to fill in what is missing in the darkness. Furthermore, the black iris not only reflects what is anatomically correct but also draws attention immediately to the center of the piece. The light background shows the space in which the eyeball is sitting, and the darker shades reflect the shape of trees. Lastly, there is a highlight at the top right of the eyeball to represent a glare.
My favorite part of this piece is the above mentioned glare. While it very well could have been added just to aid in the 3D effect, it had a different effect on me. When looking at this piece, I see a display of what it feels like to be trapped within your own mind. A distressed person huddled in an eye that fades into black deeply resonated with me. There are some days when I feel as if I am watching my life happen from an outsider’s point of view. However, I know that eventually those feelings will go away. That’s what I feel like the glare represents. Glare means a reflection of light. The choice to add the highlight in the eyeball, I feel, suggests the idea that the world in which the piece is created has a form of light. In turn, this shows that even though we may feel trapped within ourselves, there is a light that can shine through.
I feel that this piece uses a combination of values in order to portray spatial depth and a particular mood. The artist uses a combination of colors on the gray scale in order to do several things. To start, the dark ground against the light background creates the feeling of a vast field. The dark iris against the lighter person creates the feeling of someone trapped within the eyeball. The lighter colors of the eyeball also create a border that hinders the eyeball from appearing as a continuous object that blends in too much with its surroundings. The grey scale of the piece also invokes a certain mood in the viewer. Naturally, we associate these colors with an off, creepy, and solemn mood. These, accompanied by a sad person, help drive the feeling the artist was most likely trying to convey.
My attention was immediately drawn to the dark solid black iris. So much of the art piece is focused on a scale of gradients. One thing fades into another. However, instead of having the iris as a greyscale as well, it is pure black. Instead, it is the person within the eye that seems to melt into the iris. This choice, I feel, helps heighten the type of isolation the person trapped inside may feel, furthering the gloomy mood.
Ultimately, Johnston’s Myopia demonstrates how the use of artistic elements can influence the way a viewer interprets a piece. Through the contrast of light and dark, the placement of highlights, and gradient of shades, we get a sense of depth and also an emotionally heavy atmosphere. Although the artist may have had a different intention when composing this piece, my interpretation focuses on the feelings of isolation. My most favorite part of art is the understanding that a single piece can communicate something different to every person who experiences it.
