Crazy Eyes

Ramona Singer of Bravo's "Real Housewives of NYC", a textbook example of CE.

I love painting and drawing people's faces. Yes, of course there are other things that I paint and draw as well, including bodies, geometric forms and abstracted shapes, backgrounds and settings, but if I ever find myself confused or lacking interest, I will always go back to a face.

Within the face, I tend to get sidetracked by and excited most about the eyes. 

Bulging

Popping

Rolling

Flashing

Rocking back and forth

Deep-set

Wide-set

Heavy-lidded

One drooping

Crinkly

Twinkling

Beady

Lazy-eyed

Cross-eyed

The list goes on and on, and I love them all. The crazier they tend to be, the more I am seduced by their spell. But society and popular media have coined a term for unusual eyes to warn people about what's really going on with that person: they have themselves some "crazy eyes".  Now, people tend to either embrace this (Nicki Minaj frequently uses this as an attention-getting schtick, which fits with her look-at-me-I'm-so-crazy persona) or are completely embarrassed by it (Michelle Bachmann was furious with her August 2011 Newsweek cover shot).  After all, we look into someone's eyes to see if they are being honest. The ways our face contorts around our eyes determine what emotions we display. And if we want to know if someone is a vampire, we check to see if their eyes are red.

Michelle Bachmann doesn't like her crazy eyes.

Seriously, though, eyes are eyes. They are all fascinating. They are all crazy. I say that we start using "crazy eyes" with a positive connotation. For example, "She's quite the beauty from her long, gorgeous legs right up to her crazy eyes." What would be the opposite of crazy eyes, anyway? Sane eyes?

Life is too short to have sane eyes.