The Friday Rorschach: The Rug That Ties The World Together

Untitled, 2014, Collage-marker on paper

This is one of my daughter's drawings. She has been into making collages since she was about two years old. She used to cut out pieces of white paper and tape them onto larger pieces of white paper. She is now seven, and she is still at it!

What it is: It is two feet on a Mexican rug. My daughter told me the rug is a welcome mat. One of the feet is clean, and the other one is dirty and about to be wiped on the rug.

She read a biography of Frida Kahlo recently, and she created this collage shortly thereafter.

She had no explanation as to why there are two right feet.

What you thought it was: A number of people interpreted this as a piece of folk art of some sort:

@mwachtel 2 right feet (2 different ppl) on a Native American rug.
— kathleen cohn (@topazkat) February 7, 2014

@mwachtel a tribal map!
— Marcello Martinez (@marse316) February 7, 2014

More people than I would have expected mentioned Big Foot/Sasquatch/Yeti:

@mwachtel Yeti feet on a hotel bathmat.
— MissBumptious (@missbumptious) February 7, 2014

@mwachtel Sasquatch Upskirt
— AnarchoPlasma (@RonSommers) February 7, 2014

@mwachtel Sasquatch prints on a rug.
— Michael Cumpton (@mccumpton) February 7, 2014

A lot of people picked up on the rug:

RT @ShufangSays: two multiracial right foot on a mat/rug ? #FridayRorschach
— Dr. Max Wachtel (@mwachtel) February 7, 2014

@mwachtel feet on a doormat.
— Farah Unsil Habieb (@farahabieb) February 7, 2014

As always, certain people got quite creative:

@mwachtel Clearly this a representation of Western ideology oppressing the USSR at the 1943 Big Three conference in Tehran #RorschachFriday
— Bret Higgins (@DeadBeatBert) February 7, 2014

@mwachtel It's a set of footprints on The Dude's rug. It really ties the room together, man.
— The D A N (@danfmiller) February 7, 2014

@mwachtel Sochi snowboards! (Or two right feet on a rug? I also see a purple camera in the centre.)
— Facenna (@Facenna) February 7, 2014

@mwachtel easy! It's a floor mat with a vanilla & chocolate popsicle #FridayRorschcah
— Jesús M Hernández (@jesusmhdz) February 7, 2014

Most interesting to me, a number of people saw harmony, togetherness, and depth:

Humanity's welcome mat. @mwachtel
— Willow (@wshemp) February 7, 2014

@mwachtel Two friends each standing on one leg on a flying carpet
— Sally Price (@saspist) February 7, 2014

@mwachtel Someone taking a stand on the table of life, very deep :)
— Louisa Marshall (@LouisaSaigon79) February 7, 2014

And my personal favorite (because I think my daughter is heading off the beaten path):

@mwachtel I see it poetically. The road not taken. #RorschachFriday
— Melisha Regier (@ishixintensity) February 7, 2014

What you might have missed: You can't really tell in the photo, but the fringe around the edge of the rug has been cut apart and looks a bit frayed. In person, it really does resemble a welcome mat.

Also, my daughter was imagining these were her feet, hence the brown foot was dirty, as opposed to representing a darker skin tone. Ironically, she has a fairly dark complexion, and her skin tone is much closer to the brown foot than it is to the yellow foot.

Most people who incorporated the different colors of the feet into their responses interpreted this as an embrace of multiculturalism and diversity. That is probably what contributed to the number of responses expressing harmony this week. Does it change your reaction to the picture to know that it is actually a dirty foot?

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: #kiddrawing,Friday Rorschach