This week, Festiva's art critic shows us a mirror

Their faces peer from the photos, some frazzled by conflict, others reflecting peace.

Nancy Moyer’s show "The Bicameral Face" opens July 18 at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art to address how the left and right sides of the face reflect a person’s changing moods.

• CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT STC ART INSTRUCTOR DAVID FREEMAN'S EXHIBIT, SHOWING ALONGSIDE 'THE BICAMERAL FACE'

Moyer, a retired art professor at the University of Texas Pan-American in Edinburg and a former chairperson of the art department., said the two parts of the face show different demeanors of people’s minds, such as dominant, shy, stubborn, responsible, and irresponsible personas. This occurs because they are controlled by different sides of the brain. Those two sides, she says, process different kinds of information.

"We’re all aware of the asymmetry of the human face, but what causes it?" asked Moyer. "I decided to explore a theory of brain function as it affects our face and discovered a fascinating approach to the portrait."

Moyer said in her artist statement that she took one digital photo of 14 people and then used the face-flip technique to create a picture with a totally right side face and another with a totally left side face.

“I copied the right side and flipped it and made two right sides, and then I copied and flipped the left side and made two left sides,” she said. “So that aspect or persona I actually created a whole person or a whole face out of each aspect. However, I am asking viewers to consider what the brain is doing within my 14 photographed subjects to create the facial differences. I’m referencing Julian Jaynes’ bicameral face theory as a springboard, that the right brain is a receiver of information, and the left brain passes it on (reversed if you are left-handed)."

The face, she said, is dynamic, and the asymmetry caused by brain activity changes as a result of personal situations.

"It’s obvious when you think about it,” she said. “My best subjects all have some sort of inner conflict between the two sides. In some cases there is a communication problem between the two sides that causes conflict. I see this as an adventure in portraiture.”

The subjects cover a broad range of people, Moyer said: a trucking agent, an employee of Just-A-Cut, a couple of shop owners, and an artist, just to name a few. In the show, an older woman with large glasses beneath a thick frock of hair has a slight smile on her face in one photo, but appears strained in another. Another subject, a stout, bearded fellow, has some color to his face and a warm glow that conveys joy, but in the next photo the color has left him and his face is actually more narrow. A younger woman’s face, beneath a mane of copper hair, actually becomes more narrow from one photo to the next, as does that of man with a receding hairline who appears frustrated in all three photos.

Why do photos of the same person look so different?

"That depends on the person," she said. "First I thought it basically just shows the personality. It’s showing basically the function of the brain, how it effects that opposite side of the face. And so what we’re seeing are basically two aspects of that person."

However, as the project progressed, she realized the reasons behind the changes were much more dynamic.

"Basically what was going on at that time for the person was that there was conflict, where you have one brain basically conflicting with the other,” she said. “You get into something where you don’t want to do something, but you know you’ve got to do it. That kind of inner conflict. Or something you feel you’re supposed to do but you don’t want to do it, or the opposite.”

Moyer said the conflicts between the sides of the brain in her subjects were clearly visible in the photos.

"Since I know the people, I was thinking, ‘Well, what would they be in conflict over?’" she said "And I was thinking some might be in conflict over job, or some might be in conflict over what they’re doing with their art, or they’re in conflict sexually, or something like that.”

Moyer said the faces that are most visibly different are the ones who were in the most conflict the day of the photograph.

“What I’m feeling now is that the ones that are really different are the ones that may had the strongest inner conflict that day or it may be an ongoing thing,” he said. “The ones that don’t look too different may have really very few conflicts going on in their lives. Things are good. So I think the show from this point will be interesting for people to talk about because you can look at the faces you know and just kind of figure, what is their face really telling me?"

THE BICAMERAL FACE
Art exhibit by Nancy Moyer, Festiva art critic
UNTIL Aug. 22
WHERE Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, 660 E. Ringgold, Brownsville