Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Introspection

It is said that the eyes are the window to the soul. Swedish researchers* have even found that iris patterns may give important clues about our personality, ranging from how warm and trusting we are to whether we are impulsive or neurotic. If this is true, then biometric data collected from iris recognition systems could potentially be used to generate personality profiles which is kind of spooky.

All I know is that, in the late stages of this challenge, I had occasion to visit my optometrist to remove the remains of a torn contact lense that was stuck under my eyelid. While I was there, the optometrist shone a bright light into my eyes and took some photos. The magnified images of the iris and blood vessels obviously made a big impression on me. Later I was looking through the painted backgrounds I had made for rose window quilts with new eyes and was compelled to make this quilt even though I had already completed two other window themed pieces that I will display on my blog.
Introspection © 2009 Brenda Gael Smith
Introspection © 2009 Brenda Gael Smith

*See Associations between iris characteristics and personality in adulthood by Mats Larsen and others in Science Direct.

12 comments:

Deborah Boschert said...

The painted background is really lovely! It could be so many things... rose window, flower, sun, solar system.

I love that you made it the "window of the soul." You did a great job of combining machine stitching with hand stitching!

Karen said...

Brenda, I did an eyeball piece also, not nearly as nice as yours. In fact I don't think anyone would have recognized it. This is terrific with the blood vessels showing and your color choices. I didn't need to read your comments to know what this was!

Dolores said...

What a great eyeball!

Terry Grant said...

Stunning! A kind of biological mandala.

Diane Perin said...

Brenda, I really like ALL of your dyed pieces -- each is so different and so striking. It is funny how this ended up depicting your torn-contact experience. You've done a wonderful job with stitching those blood vessels!

Kristin L said...

I lOVE this! It is exuberant and gross and abstract and eye-like. I like Terry's description of a biological mandala. his may be my favorite of all your challenge pieces so far.

Françoise said...

Wow! It's stunning. (I hope your eye was not that red.)
Beautiful colours and stitching.
I'm off to see the other quilts on your blog.

Terri Stegmiller said...

Wow, this is so gorgeous. It really resembles an eye, and it looks like you need some eye drops to erase all that redness....just kidding. I love the way you stitched it...looks very much like little blood vessels.

Anonymous said...

What a hoot! Love the idea and the execution is wonderful! Having had many eye exams, I immediately recognised what it was. I like how the background fabric recreates the subtleties of the pigmentation of an iris. It's kind of like I'm looking through the eye but also looking really closely at someone elses eye at the same time (does that make any sense at all??).

PAMELA said...

It just goes to show that creative ideas are all around us to "see"; look what eventuated as a result of visiting your optometrist. I just love the concept AND your use of colour and linework. Your narrow border frames it with the right touch.

Gerrie said...

This is beautiful. Your stitching is perfect. All it lacks is a bottle of Visine!!

Unknown said...

This quilt is way too accurate - it is bring out my eye squeamishness! (don't even talk to me about the cncept of contact lenses -yuk!) So on that basis I would have voted for the rose window variation - I love the modernness of that interpretation.... but I agree that for non-eye-phobic people this was the right choice!