Many artists
(and others) around my age are discussing cataract surgery, and they either marvel or rue the marked
change in the perception of color.
I have a
preference for a soft yellow-leaning palette and all my drawings and oil
pastels were done accordingly. Orangy-red
instead of alizarin crimson. I reveled
in that warm dreamy range of color. It
made me very happy. I saw the world
itself in that palette.
Cataract
surgery on my left eye two years ago: no,
this isn’t possible. Is that what
everyone sees, a cool neutered white? (Some artists reported a sudden new brilliant white). My
entire body of work, not to mention every environment I inhabit, was suddenly
not what I thought it was. Cooler.
My dominant
right eye, as yet unfixed, still sees what I always saw. To draw in color now I have to close that eye to create
on the paper what I think most uncataracted people see, to get the warm
color I want. I can’t go back and change
the color of my finished work. I can
only go forward, closing my right eye frequently to perceive what must be the
common visual reality.
Everywhere
else, with both eyes open, I see a mix, not so warm, not so cool. For this reason alone, I’ll hang onto that
little cloud in my right eye until it really has to go, and I wink one way
and then the other, to get the whole story.
It's something like this, but of course I also have no control over what you see on your screen, we all see something different, and double that for alternating winks. But to try to clarify:
