details of Extraneous Drawings # 06 & #08
It is in the latter parts of the initial School Sketchbook and the late-early Extraneous Drawings that one is introduced to one of the themes that will dominate the entire oeuvre of Naomi's production. The focus on eyes and indeed all themes ocular in residence is initially evident in the multitudinous instances found in the Extraneous Drawings - the eye of a deer, the eye(s) of the horse, the exchange of glances between nurse and specialist in regard to her father's medical scans, the scan itself - all discerned through the noblest of eyes, the eyes of the artist. Naomi invites us to see through her eyes the eyes of others, the eyes in which her sense of self and reality becomes reflected. It should come of no surprise that scopic ability is intrinsically attached to externally reality for the young artist. The old adage of 'seeing is believing' seems inappropriately simplified to explain the chronicler's disposition. This notion of sight as reality and of being defined in and through the gaze of others becomes heavily percipient when considered the recto of the second School Sketchbook.