This week, millions of people tuned into the same show: the solar eclipse. Huge swaths of North America experienced the moon’s shadow sweeping over the earth, causing not only darkness, but weird visual distortions. The light shifted. The sky turned purple. Everything just looked strange. Time and again, I noted people commenting on how surreal the experience was, and how strange the world looked, which felt so all encompassing and deeply spiritual that it’s easy to see why humans revere these celestial events. For a few minutes there, the fluctuating light levels changed our entire perception of our reality, showing us just how fragile this reality is.
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The shifting of color during an eclipse is called the Purkinje Effect. In short, the quality of the light changes so the way our eyeballs perceive the light changes.
In bright light, colors such as red and orange are rich and vibrant to the human eye, compared with blue and green. But in dim light, red and orange become dark and muted, while purple, blue and green brighten. Sunlight's rapid, dramatic dimming during a total solar eclipse can heighten this phenomenon, making such events all the more surreal.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that our entire perception of our reality relies on the microscopic cones in our retinas, and yet witnessing how disturbing it was to see the light quality change to this degree shook me. I really base all of my comfort and certainty on how things look. Having experienced the eclipse, I now realize how short-sighted it is to place all my faith in reality on what my eyeballs perceive. Reality is just perception, and perception changes.
I came across an absolutely stunning typographer this week, Henk Krijger. I’ve never seen anything like these letters. They are a joyous explosion of lines, so expressive that I’m both seeing the letter and not seeing the letter at the same time. I don’t even know how this dude came up with these forms, and yet they LOOK like the letters I’ve read my whole life, while at the same time looking completely different. The icing on top of the cake? These letters were designed in 1952. They’ve existed for 72 years, and yet they just changed my perspective of the English alphabet in 2024.
Also this week, my debut picture book with Leah Hong received a glowing review from The Horn Book, which will publish in their May/June 2024 edition. Reviews are a fraught subject for creators. They hold so much power to change a reader’s perception of our work, and yet we have absolutely no control over how those reviews go, or what they say. I’m grateful to The Horn Book for connecting deeply with our story.
“The passage of time can seem painfully slow to young children who haven’t yet mastered how to measure hours, days, weeks, months, or years…Small pleasures punctuate the waiting time, and the family’s joyful reunion provides a satisfying conclusion, augmented by a new bicycle as the cherry on top of this sweet story.”
“The listener defines the voice of the speaker.” —Laurel Snyder
Several years ago, I attended a writing conference where Laurel Snyder spoke, and when she said these words, they really stuck with me. I realized then that no matter how hard I strove to convey my message in my art, how that message is received depends entirely on the perspective of the reader. In a way, that’s a relief. We are only responsible for our side of the conversation. We can paint the picture to the best of our ability, but we do not control how we are perceived. How can this give you more freedom in your work? Can you let go of how others perceive you and step more firmly into how you perceive yourself? If this resonates, do share in the comments!
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