What do you see when you look at the images in this column? Do the dainty circles appear like bowls filled with tiny pebbles, nests cradling eggs, eyes peering back or something else altogether?

The answer, in part, lies within one’s perceptual filters, sensory skills, prior knowledge and imaginative openness.

If you are a mycologist, you might easily identify these objects as puffballs and bird’s nest fungi. If you are blind, you might “see” them through your sense of touch. If, like my mother, you suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, you might experience the orbs as eyeballs due to the distortions of the “mind’s eye” that often accompany this disease.

If, like me, you are a poet, you might find yourself engaged in an exploration of word and image, of self and other.

For some time now, I’ve been playing with perception, toying with the “eye-dea” that all might not be what it seems or appears to be.

Perception is affected by personal perspective and sensory adeptness. Lately I’ve been influenced by the magical and mirage-like landscape of my mother’s altered sensory perception and a growing awareness that it’s difficult to determine where visual truth lies. In seeking better understanding of this challenge, I’ve turned to the tools of lens and pen and will share the current stage of this exploratory work in an upcoming exhibit at the Union Digital Gallery in Narrowsburg, New York.

“PeepHole: Playing with Perception” will be an intimate examination of “reality” through image, word and sound at the Narrowsburg Union at 7 Erie Ave., Narrowsburg, NY. The multi-sensory digital exhibit will be presented on a 16-foot HD media wall (narrowsburgunion.com/union-digital-gallery).

Peepholes are small circular openings for seeing through to the other side of something. The images revealed are often distorted and sometimes abstract due to the nature of the viewing device and one’s perception of the image. There will be a way through, but what lies on the other side—if indeed there is one—will not be revealed until we arrive. How will we know what is real? Can we trust what we perceive?”

Please consider this my cordial invitation to our readers to join me for the opening on October 7, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., or to experience the show during the month of October from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
A pop-up viewing of my previous show at the Union Digital Gallery, “Impermanence: The Transitory Nature of Experience,” will be scheduled during the month of October as well. Visit SandyLongPhotos.com for updated information.