Perspective

Recently I painted a mural on the wall leading up the stairway, in my house.  I am not a painter by any means. So I did what any modern woman would do, and I goggled "perspective". While not a trained painter, I have enough artistic training to know, in order to have depth in your piece, perspective must be employed.
I began to review what I had found concerning perspective and vanishing points. For those of you who are unfamiliar with vanishing points, it is the point in your drawing /painting where it all "comes together" in the distance, lending depth to the work. Things closer to you have more detail and are bigger, conversely things farther away are smaller and have less detail.

This was mostly review, until I came upon an example of  a picture where the vanishing point was outside the area being painted! This was something I not only didn't remember, but began to tickle my brain.

It got me thinking....... thinking about perspective in another way. I began to notice what a huge impact perspective has on how any situation is taken in and processed on a daily basis. Just as it does when viewing a painting.
Without perspective a work of art  can be reminiscent of a grade school drawing ,feeling flat and one dimensional. With perspective,  you can be drawn in, finding yourself present in the work, and everywhere in between. The things closest to you are huge and infinitely detailed and knowable , while those farthest away are vague and shadow-like.

As I go about my daily routine how does this idea of perspective present itself?  I toyed with the idea of being so close perspective would be impossible, and the world becomes a flat one dimensional place.
I began to mentally back up and see how moving away might change things for me.
This brought me to the concept of mindfulness and witness consciousness. Witness consciousness or mindfulness is a place of being able to observe yourself without judgement or the need or desire to change what you see.
This thought was aroused in me in part as a result of my role as a witness in a Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy session and in my daily meditation practice. From the place of witness, vision and scope  becomes free from attachment to outcomes. Here fear and judgement lose power, scope broadens.

I then began to ponder the concept of a vanishing point that is off the page, so to speak, outside the scope and visual of the work of art or situation. I let the idea marinate.

If I view the vanishing point as the focal point in a painting or situation, and this point doesn't exist inside my scope, do I miss the point? (pardon the pun). How much is my understanding and ability to see is related to where my perspective is coming from, on the page, and in my life?

In my role as a Phoenix Rising Practitioner, being a witness and a loving presence for  my clients, provides safety and a spaciousness for their experience to happen the way it works for them. As a witness to myself,  I can then see the vanishing point outside the situation, off the page, and provide space for myself to decide how I wish to interact with it.
Perspective, on and off the page, provides choice. How do I want to be with this picture, in my life or in the painting. What does it have to show me, teach me?