A Little Perspective

Take a look at these paintings. They look pretty good for an amateur or new painter. Perhaps something a person with a few years experience could do. I don't know anything about painting, but I thought they were beautiful. The artist shows a good use of color, an ability to put together a nice scene, and there's a warmth that comes through when looking at them.

Which makes it all the more amazing, because the man who painted this is blind. He cannot see -- not "I can see a little light and dark at times" but can't see anything at all. He was born without eyes. And he is a painter.

Eşref Armağan was born in 1953 to a poor family in rural Turkey. Growing up, he decided that he was going to be a painter. Not an unusual goal in life for some, but definitely an unusual one for a kid from a dirt-poor family who has no eyes. You might even say it was a ludicrous goal.

Fifty years later, and he's a well-known artist. He works with one color at a time, one color each day, and it has to be absolutely quiet for him to work. First he outlines his picture, then slowly adds color and texture. It's not just his painting that makes him amazing -- it would be possible to learn painting through rote. It's his ability to create 3-dimensional scenes in his mind and then keep that model in his head while he continues the painting over many days. Not only does he know where all the objects are in his painting, he even uses perspective and color correctly. Painters in the west didn't use perspective in their paintings until just a few hundred years ago.

So perhaps he is even smart enough to construct these 3-D scenes and keep track of them in his head, but how does he know how to use perspective in such a way that looks realistic to us? How does a blind man know what a good or bad picture would be like?

In the last decade or so researchers have studied the way he works on his paintings. They've even put him in an MRI and PET scanner to see what parts of his brain he is using when he paints. And they found something very interesting: when Eşref paints, all kinds of activity takes place in his visual cortex. This is astounding since people who are blind don't use their visual cortex -- it's for processing images. There is obviously much more to "seeing" than just eyes.

It's a fascinating topic, bringing together art, cognition, brain science, and the power of hard work and a positive attitude. There's even a book out, "Drawing and the Blind"

So next time you're pissed about something in life, think about Eşref -- who's making miracles happen simply because he decided he wanted to.

The most important thing we need in life is a little perspective.

EDIT: Here's a video about Eşref