Friday Rorschach: Little Girl, Interrupted

Here is today's Friday Rorschach drawing. This one was one of my daughter's.

What it actually is: It started out as a landscape. the dark blue on top is the sky, and the sun is in the upper left corner of the page. You can see the beginnings of grass at the bottom.

My daughter told me the "P" in the middle is actually supposed to be a girl's head. The girl has long hair (the stem of the P), and she is looking to the right. My daughter did not know what the girl was looking at.

But, she told me she "messed up" the painting of the girl's head (she did not say how she messed it up), so she stopped painting the girl. She tried scribbling out the girl's head by smearing the blue from the sky over it, and then she folded the painting in half (to signify she had messed up).

When I first saw this painting, I thought my daughter had meant to do everything that ended up on the page, so I was surprised to hear that she interrupted the painting because it was not turning out the way she wanted).

What you thought it was: There were interesting responses this week. When a piece of art is reasonably abstract, it requires more psychological effort to make sense of it. Some people decided to go with the simplest explanation:

@mwachtel a P.
— Michael Cumpton (@mccumpton) January 10, 2014

@mwachtel the letter P with blue color? #guess
— Deb Van R. (@JerseyQueen2) January 10, 2014

Other people tried to make sense of it on a symbolic level, giving the paint splotches some sort of form:

@mwachtel A bat caught in a tree.
— Ellen Wingenter (@elliewing) January 10, 2014

@mwachtel a hula hoop attached to a pole? #imagination
— Nataly Beribisky (@natalyberibisky) January 10, 2014

.@mwachtel A traffic jam on a bridge.
— objkshn (@objkshn) January 10, 2014

At least one person picked up on the negativity implied by the blue brush strokes on top of the P:

@mwachtel someone who doesn't like the Phillies very much
— Janet Sasson Edgette (@janetedgette) January 10, 2014

And, likely due to the abstract nature of the painting, a few people let their creativity run free:

@mwachtel a spectral camel with a riding apparatus? #imagination
— Ross Hockman (@TheRossHockman) January 10, 2014

@mwachtel "I've weed in the sea/swimming pool/bath"?!
— Fiona (@Mistress_Fiona) January 10, 2014

What you probably missed: Without seeing the painting in person, it is difficult to see the texture of the paint. Not to brag, but my daughter did a great job of layering the paint in the sky to create a foreboding, ominous feel. That is mirrored in the girl's hair. By contrast, lighter blue brush strokes are very thin and flat, giving the appearance that they are behind the girl.

Thanks for reading-- Max Wachtel, Ph.D.
www.maxwachtel.com
www.Twitter.com/mwachtel
www.Facebook.com/drmaxwachtel
www.YouTube.com/drmaxwachtel

Friday Rorschach is a fun project designed to engage readers' creativity. To participate, follow Max on twitter. He posts the drawing every Friday morning around 10am ET/8am MT. There are no wrong answers to the Friday Rorschach.

Posted in: Friday Rorschach