Anne Forbes Van Nest

I have had a life-long interest in the creative process and have experimented with a wide variety of art forms since I could hold a crayon. While my career had been in finance my passion has always been taking in the sights that intrigue and inspire me every day, using my hands and imagination to turn them into something to hold. The objects in this exhibit are handmade using combinations of driftwood, pebbles, sticks, branches, lichens, bark, seed pods, pine cones, shells, leaves, and more.

I discovered recently that what I do has a name: Pareidolia. It’s the tendency to see an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. Common examples are seeing animals, faces, or objects in cloud formations or, as in my case, seeing people in the bits of nature that I find on the ground during my walks in the mountains, woods, fields, and along shorelines. The next time you see a branch that looks like a torso or a knot of wood that looks like a head with a face you are experiencing pareidolia.

Caption for image:

"The Earl of Abergavenny," 3 feet high, list of materials: birch bark (hat, cuffs), wood (torso, arms, walking stick), pine cone scales (spats), vine (pince nez), wood burl (head), milkweed pods (ears), mushroom (nose), fungi (collar), sticks (hands/fingers).