Phil Woodward Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom
Shapes jump out at me. Encouraged by my own stereo blindness, shapes that could be seen as a face or body, merge and spring from anywhere. In nature, in the studio or reading a magazine, these pareidolic face experiences influence my collages, photographs and paintings. They explore the flatness of my perception and the depth of what seems to be reality.
I am influenced by history, my first degree, perception and ideas of Gestalt. How little information is needed for the gaze of the viewer to complete an image is explored in my work.
Currently, my paintings are small made on silhouetted wooden containers, like vessels or portals, containing fragmented emotive visions. The paintings layer coloured oil glazes, built up over time and are a personal search for meaning in a fragmented world. The painting “Enough” is a good example of this kind of work which plays with figuration, abstraction, and depth perception to create a quiet, lonely character, alone gazing back at us, but not devoid of hope or humour.
Archaeologists believe The Makapansgat pebble to be the oldest known pareidolic object. Its natural markings are reminiscent of a human face and was moved by an early human from its original source to another cave despite having no obvious function. Deep in time, art, religion and consciousness sprang from this simple pareidolic act of self recognition in another object. Our ability to recognise ourselves and find patterns and meaning in other things is a deep and important human urge.
