So I had this idea…

My proposal for PPV

Personal Protective Visuals (PPV, if you will)

My project's objective is to develop a series of visual pieces over the next 6 months that are entirely based in positive psychology and neuroscience research findings, that can improve mood and quality of life. Based on empirical, scholarly data, I hope to create oil paintings, illustrations, and murals that can visually improve human brain chemistry. 

The amount of data we are ingesting can affect our behaviours, thoughts, and actions. Since the lockdown a year ago, the increase in visual stimuli has skyrocketed. The data on the negative ophthalmology effects are showing increasing rates of myopia and other eye strain pathologies. We know now the damaging effects of blue light on our cognitive function. Based on how our eyes absorb light, green has been shown to cause the least amount of strain on the eye, because of its wavelength positioning (~555 nanometers) on the colour spectrum. This research suggests that because our eyes are at the peak of their perception to detect the wavelengths corresponding with the colour green, the shade may calm us down. These are fairly known facts about eye health. The concept of Biophilia was invented by Edward O. Wilson and suggests that human beings have an innate connection to nature, and a tendency to seek it out, and can benefit from that connection. 

New neuroscience findings are showing that there is an opposite Response to the "Fight or Flight Response" (not just "resting state") and it is finally getting studied. The Relaxation Response has actually been proven to alter gene expression. This state has been shown to decrease inflammation, boost focus, and decrease the aging of cells. Similarly, the longstanding belief that "upward spirals" didn't exist in terms of positive psychology have now been disproven. Downward spirals of emotion are known mental experiences, but new studies are finding that upward spirals are just as common. 

What does this mean for art and my practice? That there is a potential formula for what I'm calling "Personal Protective Visuals". My most recent series of oil paintings, "Perception", was inspired entirely by grief, and how to move forward with it. In short, I had hoped this series of work would fix my brain when I was suddenly hit with the sudden and unexpected death of my dad, and the tsunami of grief that came with a loss of that size. Once we got to the logistical stage of going through my dad's things, we discovered his collection of 117 cameras (in varying states of functionality). What may have been categorized as "junk" before June 17th, was now immediately relabelled as "precious heirlooms". Having never really experienced a loss of this magnitude before, I was confused that after 2 weeks, I was still somehow "uncontrollably sad". I started Googling "what makes humans happy". The findings indicated fairly typical things, like exercise and fresh air and houseplants (among others). I invested in a jungle's worth of houseplants over the next year, and taught myself how to keep them all alive. Grief made time stand still in some moments, and fly by in others. Plants were my tether to "current time".

I translated that shift in perception to the variable of "colour" and created realistic still lives of my newly inherited cameras, surrounded by those same houseplants Google informed me would make me feel better. The shapes remained recognizable but the colours had been abstracted deliberately, showing the cameras and plants in pinks, purples and blues, rather than their traditional palettes.

I hope to build my new series around the same types of principles that got me through that period of time, without being so personal to my experience. The pandemic has put an end to society, habits, and normalcy as we knew it, and we (as a global species) have been in a state of grief since early 2020. With the transition to Work From Home, endless digital platforms, and being in lockdown, our visual infrastructure has been pushed to its limits. I want to explore what visuals make human beings happy. 

I hope to learn what has been proven to help humans experience happiness, and turn that evidence into visuals: oil paintings of nature (or whatever content the findings prove to be relevant), murals in spaces that demand more visual appeal, illustrations or infographics to show that science, and offer them as accessibly-priced prints and products to share with the world. I hope to create a set of Personal Protective Visuals (PPV) that can be shared to keep us visually and mentally safe, not unlike the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that has been keeping us physically safe.

Then this happened…