When I was studying art in college, I had to learn a new way of looking at the world. I had to look for shapes in between spaces, study bone structure and muscle attachments, and learn a new language of shadow and light.
An artist must be sensitive to sights a normal person doesn’t notice. Multiple colors within a single leaf. The way light looks in the morning as opposed to dusk, and how it looks in winter as opposed to spring. Your art is only as good as your ability to notice nuances.
In her new book Fear Fighting, Kelly Balarie mentions the story of a woman with tetrachromatic vision. Her genetic mutation allows her to see the world as if she were looking through a kaleidoscope of color, seeing one hundred times more color than the average person. She sees the colors hidden from our natural sight every day–right in front of us, yet unnoticed.