Perception
How does one person’s perception change from another?
Art

Perception is described as a way of regarding, understanding or interpreting something, a mental impression. How does one person’s perception change from another?

Chace and I recently had a run-in with a neighbour’s dog. This huge dog came barrelling across from his yard and into ours, barking like a maniac while making a b-line towards my little boy. My perception of this was an absolute threat, as I did not know the intention of this dog and never have. Was he coming over for a visit or to rough up my dog. Later, when speaking to the owner about her dog, her comment was “Oh he wouldn’t hurt a fly.” Well neither Chace or myself knew that for a fact nor were we willing to wait and see. Being cautious, I got between my dog and this one, took a stand and told him to go home, keeping my puppy safe.

I wonder how many other things in life are left to interpretation and how many things are misinterpreted. I often find that sending text-messages and / or emails can be misconstrued. The receiver of the message may have a different perception than what was intended. Or they are having a rough start to their day and are reading something between the lines that is not necessarily there. Not to mention auto correct which can be quite silly, as we’ve all seen examples of that. I still prefer to pick up the phone and have a one on one conversation, which leaves nothing to misinterpretation. If it’s important, I will followup with an email, just to put it in writing and leave a paper trail.

As an artist, I find that colours always come into play, as I know what colour I am intending, and perhaps others don’t see it that way. A recent incident with my spouse sparked a whole discussion about the values of yellow. Looking at paint samples at a local paint store, I told my husband that I was thinking of painting my bathroom vanity. He mentioned that the bathroom was now yellow. Yellow! I looked at him like he had lost his mind? I don’t think so, as in my perception it is the slightest shade of off-white that one can imagine. He persisted in proving his hypothesize about CMYK and there was a slight tint of yellow in the white. OK, OK, in that respect one could say that it was the most washed out colour of yellow one can image, but at the same time I found it hard to comprehend his perception of the wall colour.

Everyone has a right to their thoughts, ideas and their perception on things. It may not always be our way, but that doesn’t make it wrong, it’s just a different way of seeing things. As we go through life let’s try to keep an open mind, looking at perception from all angles, as things don’t always fall into a black and white category...or even yellow.