Tea, Coffee, Juice, and Art

Photo: Angela Mercedes Donna Otto

From splotches of tea, coffee, and juice, Angela Mercedes Donna Otto was able to create these astounding works. The beauty in a lot of art comes from the naïvety of people assuming on approach that "oh I could do that." Upon further examination, the realization usually dawns on them that they indeed could not.

At the base of Angela Mercedes Donna Otto’s art is “apophenia”, a term used by psychologists to describe the pursuit of the human mind to construct meaning, order and forms even from chaotic structures (e.g. seeing faces and shapes in clouds). She starts the creative process by making random splotches of coffee, tea and various fruit juices on a paper canvas, to create all kinds of chaotic patterns. Then, she spends hours on end in her studio, contemplating the stains and using her imagination to identify meaningful patterns and shapes. Finally, the motifs she finds in the visually stimulant material are extracted from the patterns by drawing with colored ink.

I love the idea of art as apophenia. We have all caught ourselves at one point or another trying to connect the dots (figuratively) on some pattern that doesn't really exist. A cynic might say religion to some extent has a level of apophenia in it. All that being said, I don't necessarily think falling into this pursuit of constructing meaning is an inherently bad thing. We got these beautiful works out of it after all.

I wonder what sorts of juices she was using. Pomegranate, cranberry, and grapefruit would all have some nice colors. Tasty too.

Photo: Angela Mercedes Donna Otto

Link | Via Oddity Central