Dear friends-collectors, dear collectors-friends

On the occasion of the discovery by enthusiastic net surfers of photos from Mars that send us Curisosity that represented an enormous crab (well, unappetizing, I have to admit), NASA scientists dampened the passion of amateurs of fantastic news by pronouncing a simple word: “pareidolia”.

As I use this ability to paint my agate stones, it enables me today to tell you about it.

It would actually be an illusion created by our brain that make us recognize known forms where there are none. Our brain permanently structures its environment. And the world as each of us perceive it takes different shapes according to our expectations, our predispositions, our experience, our culture and even our unconscious. Furthermore, the Rorschach test reveals it very well and for a long time.

That is how my research work consists in discovering sometimes a dreamlike and mnemonic universe in stones’ lineaments that enables me to recall my memories or evanescent fantasies.

That’s it!

Well, pareidolia or not, this crab is kinda scary!

Pierre de Mougins

Traduction: Agathe a.edmondmariette@gmail.com