Details of Perspective

Five Minute Fridays, sponsored by www.thegypsymama.com. The topic this week, perspective. Write for five minutes, winging it with the timer ticking, watching the words form, to see where they will soar.

Perspective

The details of perspective are what makes a drawing work. If the lines are out of perspective, it will look tweaked, surrealistic, deformed. You will tilt your head, puzzled.

Details. Not always the tiny, like an ant or a scratch or a dust mote drifting in the sunlight. I get lost in the minute details of making a home, a meal, a life. The big picture, though, must be kept in perspective. If I look at everything through a magnifying glass, I miss many details. If I look through binoculars, I see much more. If I look through a telescope, I see things in cosmic proportion.

Across the valley, on a really clear, crisp day, we can see the white domes of the observatory on Mount Wilson. From there, they observe, analyze, gaze at the stars and galaxies. From here, from my house, I tend to focus on dust and mess and mistakes. It is good, to stand back and keep the big picture in perspective.

Time is up.