I thought of concealing them by painting something over them, perhaps a couple more geese in the distance; but their locations are less than ideal. Perhaps I could transform them into heavenly bodies, but we only have one sun on this earth, and UFO's would be blasphemous to a serious piece of work [ sarcasm ]. Then I thought of the Oregon rain streaming down my windshield, causing the image to have a fluted glass look. I decided to surgically remove the splats, flouting conventional wisdom.
I recently had "sliced" up a geese painting into horizontal strips. I shall attempt a vertical striping this time.
The painting was basically cut up into strips of varying widths running the north south direction. By disposing the strips with the ink splats on them, I had accomplished my main objective. My mistakes were gone! My next move was to position the strips by sliding them up and down to give the painting a different look, but mainly [ and honestly ] to obscure the missing pieces of the landscape span. I would even take one strip out of sequence and place it at another location just to dramatize the effect.
As I tried different schematic arrangements, I would document them with photos. The juxtaposition of the elements elicited an emotional response that is beyond words. I wonder if music composers feel the same way; by stringing notes together a song is born. By varying the musical intervals one changes key.
The photo documentation helped me to decide on a final layout for my collage. The initial rearrangements were fueled by instincts; now the analytical eye was given a chance to participate. Here are two examples: by placing a light colored strip in the left field, the dissonance is acute, yet not unpleasant. It is like playing a minor chord in a major key work. The second example is the impressionistic flow of water, or mist on the right side of the painting. The initial pairing truncated the "flow" of that void space, thus interrupted the feel or the energy of that story line. By aligning the void spaces, I was able to restore the flow.
( flow truncated)
(flow restored)I adopted the final layout with the help of my TV monitor. I displayed the desired version on my screen and used it as my visual template to glue down the final edition.
This exercise allowed me to
1. eliminate the annoying ink splats
2. create "hooks" or "discords" ( depending on one's point of view ) by juxtaposing
3. shift the pair of geese away from the center
4. accentuate the downward and upward flapping motions of the wings
5. create a fluted glass feel to the painting, rendering a 3 dimensional prism effect.
My finished work:
I totally grasped the meaning of "necessity is the mother of invention" now, and I am so thankful for the times that I had to sit inside my truck to stay out of the Oregon wet sunshine, watching rain streaming down the glass.
