Nancy Harvey

Red Boat
mixed media

My work regularly touches on the intersection between the cognitive and the creative: in the place between wakefulness and dreaming; reality and suspension of disbelief; or skepticism and mystery. I have long been troubled by our culture’s penchant to favor cognitive learning over the creative. I’ve read with interest the results of some of the recent studies on creativity. Many many of them show that interaction between the creative and cognitive areas of the brain is vital to human development.

By understanding more about the brain it is easier for me to comprehend how someone with unwavering faith can accept as a miracle the appearance of an “image” of a holy person on a water stained wall. Or how another can be so certain they see (or hear) subliminal messages in advertisements. That many people consider this utter nonsense means nothing to these visionaries. They believe in the veracity of their visions, perhaps in part, because they automatically separately view the images through the “window” of the creative part of their brain and rationalize them (if you will) in the cognitive portions of their brain.

In building my work I spend a great deal of time, energy, and thought using the cognitive and creative spheres of my brain both intentionally and spontaneously. I hope as you view my work, you will use the same process to search for your own visions within it.

© Nancy Harvey