Penny Cagney

I am currently exploring the science of color and vision with the aid of a groundbreaking new tool developed by the SciHub team at Arizona State University*. This technology offers fresh insight into how we perceive the world, and it is inspiring a new body of work. This series of oil paintings is designed specifically for the capabilities of this device, which reveals the rich diversity of visual experience—how humans with colorblindness see, as well as how other species with more or less visual capacity than our own perceive their environments. Vision, after all, does not exist in isolation; it evolves within the greater context of nature. The collection will include 20-inch round paintings inspired by Ishihara Plates—tools traditionally used to diagnose colorblindness—as well as large, brilliantly colored, multi-layered landscapes. When viewed through this new technology, the works will illuminate a spectrum of simultaneous ways of seeing. I received a MFA in studio arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I was was born, raised and educated in greater Chicagoland but have lived in Arizona for 20+ years.