Perception

                A few weeks ago in my 2D design class, we talked about something that I never would’ve thought about discussing in art: psychology.  My teacher described to us the Gestalt laws, which are a set of laws about visual perception discovered by a German psychologist.  As I just finished reading a chapter for my psychology class, I found myself reviewing the Gestalt laws, this time outside of my art class.  My textbook described things I was already familiar with, such as the law of closure and the law of proximity, as well as things beyond the Gestalt laws that I had never heard about before.  It went into parts of perception that “visual artists master” to produce a three-dimensional illusion on a two-dimensional surface, such as the various monocular cues.

                Until seeing the overlap between my psychology class and 2D design, I had always considered my classes as separate and distinct.  I had my art classes, my elective classes, and then those other classes that I had to take to graduate.  I didn’t think that science or math and art could mix.  Now, though, I realize that much of art is psychology, and that it would be impossible to separate the two.