Perspective

I was reading the biography of a famous artist and he said, "When I heard my first art teacher teach about 2 point perspective, I thought it was magical. That is what started it all...."

"I wonder what 2 point perspective is...?", I thought, the accomplished art teacher of twenty years and artist for around 50. Lest you think less highly of me than this admission might demand, in my defense, I know perspective and I use perspective in my art, but to my knowledge I was never taught anything more than one point perspective (all things go to a vanishing point on the horizon.)

And if this famous artist ( I think it was Remington- I read many bios this week) was so amazed that it launched his glorious career, it would behoove me to find out what 2 point perspective was. Once I knew what it was, I would teach it to my art students. Maybe I would help propel one of them to greatness. So I googled it and then quickly practiced. My students arrived shortly after that.....

It is a little confusing, but with a little practice, no line or angle that is used to create the effect of three dimensional space will ever be wrong again. First you draw a horizon line which is defined as your eye level on whatever scene you are gazing at. Then you draw two points on the two ends of that horizon line. All lines that converge from the left side of the page converge to the right vanishing point, and all non-vertical lines on the right side of the page converge to the left vanishing point.

My students were all initially confused as you must draw about 40 billion lines to set the drawing up.... but once they began to get the idea, they all were able to draw a realistic wall of lines of bricks receding to a corner, then coming back to the viewer. And, it looked real. While drawing the guide lines, many said, "I don't know why I am doing this, but I will trust you."  When they saw a realistic corner emerge in their drawing, they said one by one, "OH!!! Now I see!"

So I learned some very important things. First, God supplies all my needs. I didn't know what I was going to teach my art students that might revolutionize their drawing skill....but He did and He planted that one little sentence from a book my parents had given me in my mind.

Secondly, there is always something more to learn. Never be so arrogant as to think I know it all, even after 50 years working in my area of "expertise."  The only unteachable mind is one who won't listen.

Thirdly, and the most relevant for the day,  perspective is variable depending on where you stand....but from that vantage point, there is one and only one way to draw it accurately. This is a critical point, and I believe a spiritual one as well. (Of course....that is the purpose of all points....) Here is what I think God might be saying to me with the visual aid of my perspective lesson. We all are at different points in our walk towards God- where our horizon line lies varies on the page depending literally on our height and position. But if we want to find truth, there is really only one way to draw those lines accurately. (And don't start pontificating about abstract art or personal interpretation.... I am not talking about creativity but accurately depicting perspective.)  All lines MUST point to the vanishing point, or it will not be true. There is a truth here, and it is absolute, and it doesn't matter how sincerely you believe you can change that truth. If you draw it any other way it will look "off ".  It will be wrong. You will not sell that painting for a million dollars.

In fact, one of my students tried to challenge the truth of the vanishing point. She finished her window that receded into the corner and it looked pretty good. However, when I checked her drawing, the bottom line of the window did not converge to the vanishing point. I pointed that out to her.
"I know," she told me, "I decided rather than change my drawing, I would just change my vanishing point."
But then when she started to draw her lines of bricks, they were off. She could not do realistic details with shifting vanishing points. She came (rightly) to the conclusion that she must use the one true and only vanishing point, and with a sigh, corrected her misdrawn lines.

The Bible says if you know the truth, the truth will set you free. This is a rather strange statement given the constraints it seems to impose on there being only one way, a straight and narrow path at that, to reach God, and it is through faith in Jesus. Yet, like my rules of perspective, once I decide I will always make my lines converge on the true vanishing point, I am suddenly free to create a whole world of convincing art when before I would just crumple my paper and say, "No one can draw a receding wall of bricks and remain sane!"  But at the same time, we are all standing at different heights and different distances and our horizon varies.  The miraculous beauty of God is that from all those vantage points, there is always a clear and true path to His side.

John 14:6

 ⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.