Mark your calendars for May 16, and attend the Lunch and Learn event featuring UVM Professor Emeritus Michael Strauss. The presentation, “The Magic Portal and the Beholder’s Share,” will focus on the creation and viewing of art. The Magic Portal refers to the three-dimensional image we see in representational drawings and paintings, while the Beholder’s Share pertains to how our life experiences affect our understanding of art when we view it.

Whether you’re an art professional or student, attempting to create such an image on paper or canvas involves all three components of grounded cognition – seeing, moving your hand, and feeling your way across the surface. Creating art from observation can be a difficult process, and it exposes how little we understand about what we perceive.

In this presentation you will learn how artists create the illusion of three-dimensionality on a two-dimensional surface and how your life experiences as a viewer affect its meaning.