Saturday, January 16, 2016

OA Gold


I originally intended to make the moon nimbus gold simply because I wanted it to look more iconic. I lived with the silver on my dining room wall for weeks before I finally gold leafed over it. Now I might actually love the painting. There really is nothing like watching a painting change with the changing light conditions over a day. I still want to make the diver suit darker and possibly the painting itself, too. 

Now that the heart is gold, it becomes a focal point and I'm not sure about it. In some ways it makes the heart heavier and asks the viewer, "What is below?" or "Where is the rest of the heart?" or "Can I imagine deeper than this painting?"...and of course I like that. In other ways, it draws attention to the edge of the canvas and acts like an annoying sink. I'm sure designers would miss the metaphor for the technical. They probably should since I didn't do it on purpose. Well, wait a minute. I guess I did. But not because I had the metaphor in mind. More because this giant canvas (72" long!) didn't look right with a smaller diver just to fit the heart. I placed the Moon first, then the diver. The moon had to be right there and that big. I guess I will let the heart be what it is. It's probably painted for those of us who need to be annoyed a little bit.

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