FACING FACTS

The human body has two faces. One at the top of the neck – at the front. The other at the bottom of the spine – at the back. Filmmakers and painters are extremely aware of this combination. Often the back-facing face is the protagonist on screen and canvas. It mesmerizes in motion and stillness. It even haunts. The top face is mostly about horizontals – the nose being an exception. The lower face is unquestionably about the vertical. A vertical line says it all. It hypnotizes us. We forget that out of that vertical line can come spillage of a lovely or grotesque sort. The vertical line takes over our lives and makes us capable of extremely bad calculation and analysis. But the rest of that face can travel a thousand miles away from thrilling us. It can disgust. It can horrify. It can make us wish for death. That face is the essence of both beauty and disaster. The camera has told it all. The paintbrush has hovered with paint over canvas in session after session. The human eye has made life-changing decisions because of that vertical mastery – even if it never smiles.

But wait… Is the human cleavage – so vertical – a third face???

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