Introduction

The objective of this website is to prove that the ability to perceive alternate realities within any image that one beholds can be taught and applied to almost any image that one beholds.

“If one but threw a sponge full of colors at the wall it would leave a patch in which one might see a beautiful landscape. It is probably true that one may see all sorts of things in such a patch- that is, if one wishes to look for them- such as human heads, different kinds of animals, battles, cliffs, the clouds or forests, and other such things…” Leonardo da Vinci

Study me, if you delight in me, because on very few occasions shall I return to the world. And because the patience for this profession is found in very few and only in those who wish to compose things anew. Come, oh men, to see the miracles that such studies will disclose in nature. Leonardo da Vinci

These quotes above were the words of Leonardo da Vinci as an advice to the artist who wished to enhance his power of creative invention. In Irvin Stone’s epic movie, “The Agony and The Ecstasy” he shows Michelangelo awaking in a cave and perceiving, in the clouds, the image of God about to give life to Adam; an image that we later see emerge on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Have you ever looked at the clouds and seen familiar images? Are you familiar with the Rorschach test? Well, this is what happened when I was growing up in Portsmouth, Dominica, British West Indies. My mother was teaching my brother and me to read and she asked my now late brother, Eddie, to identify the map of Italy. He couldn’t. So, I said,

“Ma, let me show you,” and she said,

“No, let me give him a hint, ‘Italy is kicking Sicily'!” she continued.

This anthropomorphic depiction of a map was a light-bulb moment for me. So I said,

“Ma, Dominica looks like a penguin, and Guadeloupe looks like a butterfly.”

This was the genesis of my visual punning obsession. From that day, I have not stopped searching for hidden images whenever I behold any image. I always feel that there is a hidden subliminal image hidden within every image; one that we have never taken the time to discover. In 1980, I first read the suggestion of Leonardo da Vinci, and I felt that it provided me with a rational for my obsessive visual punning search. I soon after discovered the visual pun paintings of the Spanish surrealist painter, Salvador Dalí. I was hooked. I had found the perfect justification for this visual delight. The world had revered Leonardo for five hundred years and Dalí was an accepted and recognized modern master, so I could set my sights on transcending the accomplishment of this great modern painter.

I was already an adoring fan of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa and therefore I began a quest to discover the mystery that had eluded the world of art lovers for five (500) hundred years. I would not be so presumptuous, however, to claim that I have discovered the mystery yet, although I cringe at the presumptuousness every time someone makes that claim. However, I do believe that Leonardo intended for posterity to continuously debate that issue. Leonardo was fond of mysteries and puns and his suggestion attests to the fact that he wanted the world to perpetually speculate on the identity of his sitter and the mysterious nature of his masterpiece. I do, however, believe that he has left us an idea that can be a source of great fun and visual delight by searching for alternate realities or illusions when one looks at any image. So, if Leonardo and my mother have taught me to perceive alternative realities or parallel universes within our visible world, then I know that I can teach others to experience the ecstatic visual delight of Anthropomorphic Perception.

Quite often, on the news, we hear of pious Christians who claim to see apparitions of Christ or the Virgin Mary in a slice of bread or even in the grain of wood panelling. Sitting pensively in the bathroom staring at the patterns on the shower curtain can also conjure these types of visual pleasures. Some see those images in water stained concrete and these rudimentary visions are analogous to the visual delights that this website is designed to teach others to experience.

The objective of this website, therefore, is to prove that this type of perception can be taught and applied to many of the artistic delights that we have enjoyed for many years in the museums that we visit. It is also designed to help the viewer to have more fun when looking at paintings, regardless of the intent of the original creator of the image or simply in looking at our natural world. I know that many of you have had similar experiences and my objective, with this website, is to give you some pointers to sharpen your skills at discovering the delightful hidden world that one can find when one looks at any images. It is meant to enhance art appreciation by taking one's own imaginative journey into a parallel universe, another visual dimension, while still remaining firmly grounded in one's terrestrial three dimensional space. This website seeks to prove that this type of perception can be taught and developed and I challenge you to go through this website and respond to me indicating whether, you feel, that your faculties of Anthropomorphic Perception have been enhanced after this experience.

Now proceed to your adventure and experience the REVELATION