The Friday Rorschach: Stanley In Disguise

Stanley In Disguise, 2013, tempera paint on paper

What it is: This is one of my son's paintings. For those of you familiar with The Friday Rorschach, you might recognize the subject: Stanley, The Cat. For those of you who are unfamiliar, we had a cat named Stanley when our kids were very young. But, we needed to give him away because my daughter is horribly allergic to just about everything, including cats. We all miss Stanley, and we have a picture of him in our art studio:

It is a bit on the abstract side, but you might be able to see the relationship between this photo and my son's painting. 

What you thought it was: Absolutely no one thought this was a cat.

Most of you thought it was a minion (of Despicable Me fame) wearing a costume:

@mwachtel A cosplaying Minion.
— Kris Roley (@roleyshow) May 23, 2014

@mwachtel a minon with a black bear-eared hoodie.
— Sophie G ^_^ (@is0ph) May 23, 2014

@mwachtel a minion with a Mickey Mouse costume #FridayRorschach
— Jesús M Hernández (@jesusmhdz) May 23, 2014

Several of you saw Mickey Mouse:

@mwachtel Mickey Mouse in swimming goggles.
— OldRogue (@OldRogue) May 23, 2014

One of you combined the minion and the Mickey Mouse ideas:

@McLeanSix @mwachtel clearly a minion disguised as Mickey Mouse. In snow.
— Sarah Norwood (@diggerdiaries) May 23, 2014

And then there was this awesome pun:

@mwachtel minion mouse!! :)
— lisa saulis (@lisaulis) May 23, 2014

Many others saw a pig:

@mwachtel #FridayRorschach -The golden pig of opportunity.
— Peggyj7 (@peggyj7) May 23, 2014

@mwachtel it looks like a villain on the angry birds Star Wars edition #FridayRorschach pic.twitter.com/KEVvwbgdSX
— Troy Dildine (@troychris123) May 23, 2014

Several of you saw a cave of sorts (both of these tweets seem rather Freudian to me):

@mwachtel cave, with fire at the back, and bushes beside the cave on the outside. I like this one!.
— Dogenonymous (@canadaanon_anon) May 23, 2014

@mwachtel Light at the end of a rather short tunnel.
— Bret Higgins (@DeadBeatBert) May 23, 2014

A lot of you combined several different objects into one image. On the actual Rorschach, these types of responses are often indicative of severe brain damage or psychosis (if a person combines two objects in an unnatural way, it says something about his/her impaired perception of reality). On the Friday Rorschach, it is not problematic, though--it is a sign of creativity:

@mwachtel A Pog, pig/dog interbreed
— Gianfranco (@giannyboy) May 23, 2014

@mwachtel Definitely a waving penguin pig on a boat in a snowstorm.
— David Petropoulos (@dspetro) May 23, 2014

Its a bearllamapig... RT @mwachtel: #FridayRorschach: What might this be? pic.twitter.com/NxvLXOlMdL
— PA2B? (@PA_2_B) May 23, 2014

@mwachtel It's a blindfolded Batman-chicken. #FridayRorschach
— nicole van as (@nicolevanas) May 23, 2014

What you might have missed: No one saw the mouse sitting on a piece of cheese next to the cat. Scroll back up to the full picture at the top of this post. It will change your perception of what is taking place in the painting.

One last thought: Did you happen to see what looked like sperm cells swimming around in the background? 

@mwachtel #FridayRorschach a koala bear pirate that, strangely, has sperm swimming around it.
— NoJudge (@amafera) May 23, 2014

@mwachtel sperm swimming behind a Pokemon
— Anthony Cave (@AntnyCave) May 23, 2014

It is possible that many people saw the sperm cells but chose not to incorporate them into their responses. This is a normal process when one is publicly interpreting art--we all need to make choices about what we are comfortable mentioning out loud and what we want to keep to ourselves. And, if something in a piece of art makes us uncomfortable, we often do not even see it.

(by Max Wachtel)

Friday Rorschach is a fun project designed to engage readers' creativity. To participate, follow Max on twitter. He posts the drawing every Friday morning at 10am ET/8am MT. There are no wrong answers to the Friday Rorschach, and there is no judgment, either. This should not be considered a psychological evaluation.

Posted in: #kiddrawing,Friday Rorschach