Faculty of Art

Drawing and Painting

Natalie Wesselius

Pareidolia

Pareidolia is a complex form of illusion where we identify patterns in spaces or compositions. This includes faces or butterflies in inkblots, or in this case figures in the dark. When looking at a chair, I feel someone sitting in it; a presence of being. When looking into an empty room, it is still in time but of otherworldly. For a long time, I used to be afraid of the fire alarm that stared at me through the door or the bath tub drain that did the same; coats in the dark are horror-like characters or the shadow of the chandelier is a baby. Pareidolia is uncontrollable, instinctual, but at times overwhelming. This painting represents how the imaginative takes ahold of your spaces in ways that can be frightening.