eyes across the grail

grail, by srs "Grail" paINTed 1990 thereabouts 42 x 32 cm oil on canvas. Psych 101 anybody?

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k. riggs gardner said...

Pay no attention to the space between profiles. It is there by sheer coincidence!

masterymistery said...

Hi Karen, thanks for your comment. I had to think about it for a while, but got there in the end. Initially I found it mysterious and impenetrable, which is good, but then I saw the light and it was better. Cheers.

MM

SHUBHAJIT said...

Its psychedelic..

I am curious about the title 'eyes across the grail'

masterymistery said...

Hi Shubhajit, The idea for the painting came from one of those optical illusions you find depicted in psychology books. it relates to perception of figure/ground, where the perception 'flips' between figure and ground. The figure being the profiles of the two 'people' (?) looking at each other, and the space between the two profiles is the ground. Which is said to resemble a cup or grail.

Emily VanLaeys said...

I love this depiction of the famous psych picture. I recently learned that staring at this kind of picture until one is able to see both the grail and the profiles at the same time enables one to integrate the right and left sides of the brain. It is the separation between the two sides of the brain that prevent us from seeing beyond the veil to the reality that we are One with Love and Light and All-That-Is.

masterymistery said...

Emily, thanks for your comment, which provides much food for thought. There's a bundle of nerve fibres, called the corpus callosum, joining the left and the right sides of the brain. In extreme cases of epilepsy, one of the so called therapies involves severing the corpus callosum. It would be an interesting research project to analyse whether people who have had the procedure manifest any deep attitudinal changes / beliefs or personality/psychological changes, eg with regard to "religious" beliefs.

Unknown said...

I like the strip of light along the middle. The surroundings are mechanical, somewhat Geiger-esque. The light provides a glimpse at a brighter energy somewhere within.

masterymistery said...

Faycin, ...or a darker energy without, where everything is inverted!

Unknown said...

Ah yes...
My father always loved such dichotomies. He also enjoyed playing the devil's advocate whenever possible.

Aubvey said...

Is it just me, or does that middle thing look like a--um--banana?

masterymistery said...

Aubvey, I don't see a banana. Admittedly it's not the most representational representation of a grail, but it will have to do. Thanks for stopping by.

weirsdo said...

I think Aubvey was being euphemistically Freudian, M. M.

masterymistery said...

weirsdo, it occurred to me but then I thought that would be the most impossibly deformed and misshapen banana that ever swung in the wind between two tall trees. Unless it had some pretty radical body art --- piercings, constrictions and bindings. must have been very painful...