For 28 years I have been teaching fine art. The challenge has been to teach students how to see. Like a foreign language learning to see is misunderstood by most and to many it is lost to mediocre ways of seeing. Why is it so important to see? Without question seeing or having the ability to observe reality is one of the most important functions we possess. It gives us the ability to think visually, creatively and intuitively.  Seeing is deeply tide to using both left and right sides of the brain. The process of making fine art has a solid history of extraordinary individuals seeing the world in new and unique ways. These individuals are creative, right brain thinkers. Often we see these people as different or having special gifts and not part of the normal way of life. The truth is they are like us, they happen to operate in the right brain modes of thinking. Most of us show some degree of creativity but much of the time our left-brain way of life is the norm.  If we research those individuals who are successful in their fields of study we learn they use both sides of their brain. They have the ability to be verbal, analytical, logical and creative in which to uncover worlds of information and develop skills.

So why do some of us have a difficult time switching to the creative side? Society supports analytical and logical left-brain thinking and we have the habit of using left-brain thinking in order to survive. Most of our education focuses on using the dominant left-brain verbal side of thinking. Verbal communication is very important to us. We have to go out of are way to seek special education to think differently. From an early age we are thought to identify things by naming them, this is verbal thinking. When we see a tree we name it and store it symbolically in our brain. If we don't know its name we feel unintelligent and shame which is a way of emotionally blocking our brain function.  To correctly see something that we don't know anything about we slow down by examining it carefully and switch our thinking and see it as unique and complicated. We see the details and examine its relationships on, around and in the thing, we see it visually. We see it fresh and do not assign anything to it; we freely conceptualize what it is and its purpose, we are creative in the way we think about it.

If we go a step further and use both sides of the brain. We begin with our left brain to organize what we are observing, then switch to the right brain and try to identify patterns, looking at it in as many ways as possible. If we include a period of incubation as part of our process, a creative thought or what I call a creative BB is born. This is a mental function that is available to us all. A creative BB is an idea that is undeveloped, asymmetrical in shape and can be seen in countless ways.

We see, compare and recognize the world through our eyes and brain. Our eyes are connected to the brain so we can gather and use visual information. In simplistic terms light travels through our lens and projects an image on the back of the eyeball. The image is picked up as information and then travels through the optic nerve into our brain. Our brain decides what to do with this information. We decide how to use the information. We recognize what we are seeing symbolically, verbally and compare it to any memories, or we do not. We choose to see all, part or nothing. We filter out information according to our purpose and perspective. For Example, when we observe a flag it can be seen objectively or subjectively. It can have a great emotional presents, seen as a series of colors and shapes or a foreign object that is unique to a place and time. We filter information and think in specific ways. This is an automatic system that is experienced and cultured through education. We develop personal thinking habits that are comfortable in the way we live. In other words we block  and filter out what we see so we can see a specific way. Like a tourist in a foreign land we see according to our perspective.

The Grand Tourists of the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries collected and preserved valuable impressions of their travels. Pedagogical theory through the middle of the century continued to value the central importance of drawing to training the eye to see and "attend to" reality in ways that were directly applicable to success in professions as diverse as medicine and science, to commerce, entrepreneurship and ministry.

In a very practical sense parts of the brain help us move around in the world, think and feel.  How we use our brain also keeps us from being successful, solving problems and doing important tasks. Different kinds of thinking are accomplished in different parts of the brain. If we use a mode of thinking that is not appropriate for the kind of task we want to accomplish we will not succeed. Here is a list of the different modes of thinking:

1. Left-brain is verbal, analytical, symbolic, liner, logical, practical, directed, objective and proportional, helps us communicate ideas.

2. The right brain is intuitive, feeling, concert, nonlinear, holistic, pattern, subjective, and nonrational, helps us to freely conceptualize.

In the book; Drawing on The right Side of The Brain, author Betty Edwards worked out a system to draw using the right brain modes of thinking. In her explanation she reveals how some of us have difficulties drawing because we don't use the right side of the brain. During our life we often develop a dominant mode of thinking and we use it more often then the other side. This puts us in the habit of solving problems in ways we are most comfortable. If we draw and use the wrong mode of thinking we produce the image symbolically and don't see the negative and positive space, patterns, contrasts, relationships, light and shade. We can't visualize how to draw it. We become frustrated and unable to draw what we think we are seeing. Our drawing often looks cartoonish or even unintelligible.

In the book, Conceptual Blockbusting Author James Adams acknowledges the analytical and verbal as both powerful problem-solving tools but directs our attention to creative conceptualization as a means to solve problems. He explains it is not a matter of wanting to be more creative but instead we need to understand why we are blocked from thinking so.

We block out ways of thinking through our habits. If we don't use the creative / visual side of our brain, then how can we freely conceptualize, visualize, see things holistically or in patterns. On the other hand, if we only use the right side of the brain then we will have difficulty being logical, analytical and solving verbal problems. We block our thinking by cultural taboos, rules, emotional prejudices, fears, intellectual or expressive inadequacy, habits, and a lack of tools to shift our thinking.

Roger N. Shepard, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University recently described his personal mode of creative thought during which research ideas emerged in his mind as universalized, essentially complete, long-sought solutions to problems.

"That in all of these sudden illuminations my ideas took shape in a primary visual-spatial form without, so far as I can introspect, any verbal intervention is in accordance with what has always been my preferred mode of thinking… Many of my happiest hours since childhood have been spent absorbed in drawing, in tinkling, or in exercises of purely mental visualization."

How do we use both sides of our brain? We practice for the most part. Like exercising your body your brain will work best in those areas that you use most. For example, drawing or any creative endeavor is a right brain function. Drawing will not change your thinking or seeing per say unless you shift your thinking. You shift to visual thinking by looking carefully and not assuming you know what you are seeing. In some countries drawing is part of the homework so the student will use right brain problem solving skills. The student is looking at the problem visually, not symbolically and the shift occurs when the student sees imaginatively identifying patterns, negative and positive space. The exercise is to literally switch your thinking and see the same thing differently. In preparation to draw, stop and take the time to look carefully at your subject from top to bottom. Let go of any preconceived ideas and examine the subject for at least a couple of minutes. This will relax your body, mind and put you into a visual state of being.

A few mental ways in which you can change your thoughts to right brain modes of thinking:

1. Change your perspective , see the negative space, look at it upside down, backwards through a mirror, far away and close up. See it by visualizing how a friend might see it.

2. Change your consciousness , let go of any inhabitations or aggressiveness, don't judge, meditate, rest and let creativity rise to the top.

3. Change your thinking with activities, walk, go a different way, redirect your attention, read a book that you normally don't, play, garden, eat something different and cut out pictures from a magazine without passing any kind of judgment.

4. Change your feelings , try to feel instead of judging, visualize experiences and listen to your favorite music..

References for subject: The Art Of Creation by Arthur Koestler, The Psychology of Consciousness by Robert Ornstein, Lateral Thinking by Edward Bono, The Creative Process by Brewster Ghiselin, Quantum Leap Thinking by James Mapes, Conceptual Block Busting by James Adams, Visual Thinking by Rudolf Arnheim and Drawing From The Right Side Of The Brain by Betty Edwards.