Understanding the Brain and the Senses

Color scan of a human brain.

A few weeks ago I wrote about a book that my friend recommended, "Your Brain on Art" by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross. So far it's been an amazing read and even though I'm only about 70 pages into it I am fascinated by what I'm learning about my own brain. Specifically why my family called me "sensitive" when I was a young girl and why my drawings are always too big.

Let me explain....

Years ago while we were living aboard our 50' sailboat BOREAS in the Pacific Northwest I kept a travel sketchbook and filled it with vignettes of what we were seeing. But I wasn't happy with what I was drawing. Everything was out of proportion despite my best efforts and nothing truly looked like what I was seeing.

That's when I met Nancy Lucas-Williams and she changed my life.

Lucy and Nancy Lucas-Williams in Port Townsend, WA

She taught me to remove distractions, to slow down in order to truly observe, and embrace the darkness all around. When I did those things I could see objects are they are instead of larger than life.

Nancy taught me to draw a cast using the sight-sized method where you draw something the same size as you see it. But what I drew was 150% larger than what was there. I quite experienced it larger than life which is what I drew.

Now as I gain more experience with the sight-size method I have learned to see more accurately and my paintings start off closer to the real size of the objects I see but I still tend to draw things bigger than they are.

Switching gears now....stay with me dear reader...

Growing up in a hardworking family with very pragmatic parents it wasn't long before I was labeled "sensitive". Here's a great example, as a kid living on what we called a farm with cows and what others might call a small ranch, part of our responsibilities was to move the cattle from one field to another. Because my father also was the owner and sole operator of a store in town, ranch work had to fit into tight windows of his available time between his other responsibilities. That meant that if it was crazy cold or raining or snowing we would all dress for the weather and head outdoors to herd cattle.

My parents working cattle in the rain.

On this particular day it had been raining for hours and the dark black dirt in the fields was now sticky, slippery mud. As a young person who didn't want to slog through the rain to chase cattle I was being a little pouty, but I was there doing the work. Things were going pretty well when suddenly a cow near me decided to bolt the opposite direction. I turned to chase but my shoe stayed in the mud and after taking 1 step in my sock I started to cry.

It all felt so BIG, so stupid, so hopeless!

Meanwhile other family members were yelling at me to keep running because now they had to leave their posts to chase down my errant cow and then all the cattle scattered. I felt distraught and embarrassed. My mom made her way to me and told me to just go home which I did much to my chagrin carrying my muddy shoe with my head hanging low.

For years I thought I was broken - not tough enough, not enough like my other family members.

In fact I still struggle with that some days.

But now this book is helping me understand both my brain and my body and why I am often overcome by my experiences.

According to the authors each and every one of us are sensory beings who think not thinking beings who feel.

To that point check out these numbers:

• The nose can detect 1 trillion odors and has over 400 types of scent receptors

• The tongue has over 10,000 taste buds

• One foot has more than 700,000 nerve endings

• Touch can register in the brain within 50 milliseconds

The authors state that we cannot possibly pay attention to all of the sensory stimuli coming into our bodies or to the many emotions and thoughts that emerge as a result. So the brain learns to filter out inputs that are irrelevant and focus on the whatever it thinks is pertinent.

And from what I've learned through my life is that each of us has a different filter. My filter is biased towards senses, I let through more senses than some others people might.

For example, years ago my husband and I were moving railroad ties to use for landscaping. They are dense and heavy. We were wearing gloves and as we swung a tie into place I didn't get my hand completely out of the way so one of my fingers was smashed under the tie. In my mind I imagined my finger completely flat and then suddenly 10 times too big. It throbbed and hurt so badly that I couldn't look at it. Instead my husband helped me lie down in the truck and gently took off my glove to look. He reassured me it was going to be OK and encouraged me to take deep breaths while keeping my hand elevated. After some time I was able to calm down and eventually looked at my own bruised finger.

My husband on the other hand often hurts his fingers, head, hands while working construction and quite literally shakes it off and continues working. To him it hurts but it doesn't overwhelm his senses.

Rob hard at work on our sailboat BOREAS and possibly moments away from getting hurt. 😉

I quite honestly FEEL more than he does.

And I felt more than my family members that day in the rain and mud.

All my life I never knew what to DO with all of those feelings and sensory overloads. But now I'm learning to celebrate my senses instead of feel embarrassed by what they bring me.

The book outlines what it calls an "aesthetic mindset" which is, "the ways in which you are aware of the arts and aesthetics around you, and how you bring them into your life with purpose." If you have an aesthetic mindset you have the following 4 key attributes:

(1) High level of curiosity,

(2) A love of playful, open-ended exploration,

(3) Keen sensory awareness,

(4) A drive to engage in creative activities as a maker and/or beholder

That's me!

I understand now that those things are good things to have and that being "sensitive" means my senses are alive and they are building my unique life experience.

Let's wrap this up with a quote by the Irish poet John O'Donohue, "Art is the essence of awareness". Having an aesthetic mindset means being present and using all your senses to tune into your environment which enriches your life and your art and I'm happy with that! ❤️