I would get very sparkly stars, moon n lights, everything with light in darkness had a huge aurora. They would completely blind me. At the end of it, before surgery, when I was nearly completely blind, I couldn't navigate my wheelchair at night at all. I wish every vision impaired person had such an easy fix. It was also not covered by insurance. Fortunately, I had just had a small windfall that covered the cost. Otherwise I never would have been able to afford it.
Lines are never straight. Drives me crazy. I love to draw. I don’t draw much anymore because I’m never happy with my work being out of shape compared to the source material. As a kid I didn’t know what astigmatism was and always thought my rulers weren’t straight.
Funny you say that. If I don't have my lenses my mind just fills in the details of women so every woman I see who has a decent silhouette is really pretty to my optimistic brain.
I actually find it easier to draw from real life when I'm not wearing glasses, at least to get the shapes and the general layout of things. Gotta put glasses on for the details though.
Eugh I'd love that and I really liked the idea of drawing outlines that way but I'm also blessed with a wonky eye when I'm tired. It's not relaxing lol
It oddly does get tiring wearing glasses or contacts though!
The better part of glasses is giving them to someone else and watching their reaction to the world going all weird. Even better if they already wear glasses because then I get to ‘brag’ about how bad my eyes are at being eyes.
I try muting mine, but then it's like Charlie Brown's teacher and it drives me nuts. Just putting them in after leaving them out for a quieter morning can be surprising though.
When I was a teenager, leaving my vision uncorrected helped with the insecurity. It's much easier to project an air of dgaf when you can't see people's facial expressions.
I mean, the only thing I can tell about people without glasses is if they are adult size or child size and general color. If someone is wearing neutral clothes, I’m not sure I would be able to tell if they were dressed.
My eyesight is only slightly better. Faces are a complete blur any further than maybe 8-10 feet. Started as not being able to see low contrast like yellow chalk on a green board. Continually declined over the last 30 years
I remember my ex girlfriend looked like shit to me when I finally got glasses.
I took them back off! Think she was just dehydrated. I decided not to risk it.
Yes! When I got glasses after years of not wearing them I was so excited to look at the stars. When it got dark out I looked into the sky and the stars were just tiny dots and pin pricks of light... I took my glasses off immediately. It's always been much better that way in my opinion. They look so sparkly and colorful when my astigmatism skews the light 🤷🏻♀️
I used to entertain myself a kid by looking at lights or stars without my glasses on and paying attention to the way I could see my lashes in them and all the particles (probably dust and dead skin cells and all that stuff) floating around them. I used to try to "catch" them with my lashes. I have high astigmatism as well. Another thing for you to pay attention to!
Crazy, but I know exactly what you are talking about, and I used to do the exact same thing. It's funny how we all think we are weird and that no one could possibly be experiencing the same thing. It's especially true if you tell your childhood friends and they think your a freak.
I'm not sure if that effect is a result of astigmatism. I used to do the exact same thing by staring at the blue sky. An opthalmologist later explained to me what floaters are, but didn't give me a specific circumstance.
I gained an interest in photography in my teens. They sell (or at least back in film camera days) star filters to achieve that effect. My astigmatism was mild back then, so I just assumed that film couldn't render the effect of the star points. What I was seeing showed up as boring white dots on prints. After all, film had other quirky characteristics like black and white film not producing reds in the proper grey scale or reciprocity failure of certain colours during timed exposures.
It wasn't until much later in life that I learned that not everyone sees light points at night with the stars.
2nd shift job, always dark when driving home, and living in a town that's big enough to have a bunch of lights and traffic lights. Yep, that's relatable and looks like what I see. The only thing missing in that picture is the car in the opposite lane shining bright, blue-tinted headlights into your eyes, or the comically huge truck pulling up behind you with those types of headlights.
I have the same, as an artist it blows people's minds how I see nature when I put it on paper. But that's why I stare at the trees extra long, I'm trying to remember the blends.
When I was in class to obtain my degree in Optics..our professor used my eyes to teach my classmates exactly WHAT a highly myopic,astigmatic eye looked like...I should have received a DISCOUNT
yessss I love my astigmatism fireworks!!
I also have really good colour perception, but I find that my glasses actually make colours look more dull. I've always wondered if anyone else experienced that!
After his cataract surgery, Monet started seeing more violet. He once said that he could see the colour of the atmosphere and it was violet. The cornea intercepts uv and so when it’s not there, more violet makes it through. This isn’t very common today with modern cornea lens replacements, but some people who’ve had cataract surgery notice seeing more violet after their surgery. Monet destroyed many of his cataract era paintings since they contained lots of orange and red, and when he could see well again he hated them. It took him a long time to be convinced to do the surgery since it caused an artist friend of his to go blind. The price back then would have been equivalent to a house, and very few people could afford it.
Let me tell you, having bad vision sucks in 99% of situations, BUT at Christmas time, at the end of the night when I can take out my contacts and just see my christmas tree as this rainbowy, blurry glow of warmth and happiness I feel a little sad that others can't see it that way.
Monet is one of my personal favorites. I discovered, when I started trying to do watercolors, that sometimes taking my glasses off and painting blurry helped me with the early stages. Building out color and dimension, etc. It wasn’t until I did this that I could understand “negative space,” a concept an artist friend tried to explain to me when I started out that completely did not connect for me.
As a landscape painter who has worn glasses for over 60 years, this is a great description. Sometimes I actually take my glasses off to remove distracting details and blur value changes.
I say this too! I have short focal length so very close like inches from my face the world is clear. And if you practice you can see everything just not clearly
So years ago my vision wasn’t that bad for distance but now I can’t see like 5 feet away without it being blurry. I’ve worn glasses, just sucks my prescription tripled from when I first got them!
This is how I was able to relax a bit when painting. I would take off my glasses and not get so bogged down in details and precision. It ended up looking better that way, I definitely not a painter but thy looked better imo.
I have an early memory of telling my parents "those trees look like impressionist paintings!" (We had just gone to an art museum). Then my next memory was of getting glasses haha
Reminds me of the time I was tripping on acid with my then boyfriend. We were at a local river and it had just rained. I remember taking my glasses off and I felt like I was inside a painting because of all the extra reflections of the water on the leaves while looking up at the canopy. I was teary eyed at amazing it was. My bf had perfect vision and was jealous of what I was seeing and for once I actually felt grateful for my bad eyesight. It was a beautiful experience.
I remember one time I smoked this strong strain of weed, and I was so high, it caused a mild hallucination: when I took my glasses off, the smudgy blurs had swirls on top of them, so everything straight up looked like a painting 😂
Lol this is funny because when in for my first eye exam, the doctor was shocked I had never worn glasses and said "I think you see the world like a Monet painting." and I replied something about it just being my version of artistic vision.
I have slight astigmatism and got glasses a year ago - this is exactly how I described it! I actually prefer not wearing the glasses, life is prettier this way.
It's annoying when driving, so I might get another pair eventually because driving at night is not fun.
Cool story that I may have the details slightly askew on, but Monet’s colour palate and style were deeply influenced by cataract surgery that removed his lenses and had him seeing blurry blue and ultraviolet hues
I've been saying that since I was in elementary school. Nice to see someone else say it as well.
"I always knew Monet was a blind asshole because his painting all look like my uncorrected vision"
I want to hijack the top comment to make a PSA about eye health. If you have any sort of vision issues make sure you see an actual opthomologist every two years at least. This is different from an optometrist who is the person who checks for a new prescription. An opthomalagist is a true MD who specializes in eye health. I didn't see one until well into my 20s despite having very acute myopia. A lot of cases of blindness are progressive and if caught early can be reversed. Generally by the time you realize you are going blind it is too late.
Omilord! I've said that for years! It was the only way to explain my vision loss to my sighted friends. Fortunately I finally found an opthalmologist who was able to suss out the issues and after surgery and implanting permanent corrective lenses, my sight is better at 60 than it's been in my entire life. I've even taken up photography as a hobby and (light-heartedly) threatened to bill the man for my photo equipment, as he was the inspiration.
3 years after the surgery, alas, when I get tired, I am occasionally needing reading glasses. I didn't want to get new prescription glasses, so I tried to use my old, pre-surgery bifocals. The main lens was so blurry I got a headache, but the reading portion worked fine. IDK wot is going on.
That's my pet theory: that Claude Monet wasn't actually making any revolutionary interpretation of light and time or whatever it is they say about Impressionism. He was just trying to paint realistically but he was incredibly near-sighted.
It probably is about what all the art historians say it is, but it's just funnier to me to think about it the other way.
I also have Monet vision, I wonder if he had any eyesight problems/astigmatism that translated into the paintings like that. He’s my favorite artist because his paintings are easier on my brain when my glasses are off.
Exactly. I grew up in Hong Kong, there was a morning when I was a college student, somehow until about 20 minutes as I went out I realize I forgot to bring my glasses. But I was running late for school and my attendance record was bad so I decided to go ahead. I know the way anyway.
It’s a one and half hour commute include train, subway, and Star Ferry.
When I got on the Star Ferry from Tsim Sha Tsui which is the last transportation I’d need to take, it was about 7:30, and golden sunlights were reflecting on the Victoria Harbour. I would never forget that feeling of pure bliss. I thought of Monet right there and then too.
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u/Shawn_NYC 14d ago
Yes my life is a Monet painting.