Eyes

   ~ by Beverly Koski

A strip of salmon skin, a crisp piece of bacon and a handful of cat food. The feral cat crept cautiously to the plate. I stood as near as I could without preventing the cat's excessive caution to stop her from putting her head down to eat. From time to time, she looked up, checking to see if I had moved closer. On my knees now, I waited at eye level for one of her feeding pauses. She looked at me; I looked at her. I saw yellowish green irises, each divided by the fine black vertical slit of the pupil - and unwavering concentration. The cat saw a threat in my potential for movement. Then she glanced back down at the food. As usual, I had out-stared her. I wondered at the cold focus; and lack of self consciousness. It moved me to consider eyes.

An enlarged photograph of my daughter is pinned to the wall beside my computer. She gazes out at me over the top of dark glasses. The poster is meant to catch the viewer's attention. The irises are round and brown. The pupils are equally round, but small because a light is shining on the eyes. The reflection creates a small white dot just at the upper left side of each pupil. There is intelligent focus - awareness of self shines out at me. I pondered the nature of the difference between humans and cats. Is it the presence of a soul which lurks behind the eyes? And how is this captured by an artist? Leonardo da Vinci succeeded with the Mona Lisa. Experts still seek to identify the emotion of the sitter best expressed by her eyes.

The challenge for an artist is to capture the soul behind our eyes. Perhaps, it extends beyond portrait painting and energizes all of our works. It is the emotion so evident in the works of Vincent Van Gogh.

  ~ by Beverly Koski, June 2009