Conscious vs Unconscious?

NN (Nomen Nescio) V: An Uncanny Presence.
Oil on canvas, 123 X 91 cm (48 x x36 inches).

When we observe anything how much of it us conscious and how much subconscious? When we encounter a traditional figurative painting we apparently analyse it with our conscious mind. It's a human figure, the figure is male, it has blue eyes. It has red hair and beard and a bandaged ear; its Vincent Van Gogh. But although those clues are obvious are we going consciously go through that process? No, of course not. Our eye see those details, our subconscious mind connects the dots and gives us an instant conclusion, we are looking at a painting of the artist.

Every day we can do the same with much subtler details and we do it every second of our lives. Even the slightest variations in the shade of blue of the eyes and the red of the hair can tell us the difference between Vincent Van Gogh and say Prince Harry. This is where our apophenia plays a positive role. 

But what about when the details are ambiguous? One persons blue eyes may be another grey.  Then our minds are left with a more uncertain field for our interpretation. There may be multiple clues, dots, but there may be more that one pattern that can be obtained through their connection.  And sometimes there may not be any real clues at all, except the ones that we want to perceive. 

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