Today, in preparation for my MFA thesis project, I'm sorting through hundreds of photos of figure models, choosing shots I can use to represent people lost in thought or reverie. One of the essential elements for this attitude is the position of their eyes. A few years ago, I stumbled across theories of how the directions of our gaze correspond to parts of our brains and reflect particular cognitive and emotional processes. For example, a person looking down to their right is engaged with feelings, while a person looking down to their left is engaged in self-talk.
Using this research, I've been exploring how the gesture of the eyes, the expression of the face, and the posture of the body can communicate the psychological state of a person. By portraying the model staring off into an empty space—in the distance, in a middle ground, or even at her own body—I can portray the model absorbed in her own psyche. With the right treatment of the eyes, I hope to create images of people gazing inward.
On my studio wall are four printouts describing eye position and the meanings we can associate with them. I've documented seven poses to illustrate types of eye position. I've pasted these below. The model here is Alyssa. I was excited that she knew all about the psychology of eye position and was able to remind me what corresponds to what. So it was easy for her to portray various gazes along with their associated attitudes.
In each picture, the model suggests a painting subject who is not making any eye-contact with the artist or viewer. But she is not averting her gaze away from the artist/viewer. The viewer and artist have nothing to do with her, from her perspective. From our perspective, we could be voyeurs, but for me, the emotion or attitude of the subject's gaze is engaging me in a mirror-neuron sort of way, causing me not to ogle her, but to gaze inward myself. That's the goal. Though she's left us "out of the picture," our connection with the subject is an empathy that is both cognitive and emotional.
Maybe mirror-neuron is an unfortunate phrase, because she's not a mirror-image to me. If she looks to the left, in theory, I should feel like looking to the right. At any rate, I'm not compelled to look at what she's looking at, as there's nothing in the picture that she is looking at. I don't want to look at her. I want to look inside myself. It's a really interesting and timely subject of exploration in a new century that I'm convinced will unfold as "the century of the mind." When I get some paintings made, I'll share the results here. I don't expect to necessarily communicate attitudes as specific as are explained below, but I do expect to communicate an inward looking gaze.
