composition and eye movements

Here's a REALLY good example of how integral psychology and neuroscience are to art perception. Viewers do not just "randomly" look at artwork -- eye movements are "controlled" by compositional elements.

detail decisions

While I was culling some of my recent photographs, I came across these variations and thought it might be interesting to post them. After finishing the primary composition for this collage, I contemplated placing the word "IF" as an additional element. I don't usually use much text in my compositions, but this piece was my half of a collage project for which my friend and fellow collage artist Anthony Morgan and I used only images from a single issue of LIFE magazine. I thought the "IF" from "LIFE" might be a nice addition. Even with this small component (detail) of the larger composition, there were variations to be considered. I ultimately decided to make the upper case "I" into a lower case "i" by adding a small red "dash". BTW, I have submitted this piece for this year's National Collage Society juried exhibit (wish me luck!)