Monochrome #2

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For this image the colors in Monochrome #1 are reversed. Are these fuzzy black dots, or holes? They pop in and out like an optical illusion. The intent is not to create an optical illusion. Rather the intent is to explore the emotional response compared to the black on white version.

I do not mean an obvious emotion like you might experience with a painting or photograph of a child with a puppy. Rather something more like meditation. If you try to remove your expectations and quiet the inner narrative, what do you feel? Personally, what I find is not symmetric as might be expected with the mechanical color flip would suggest.

Monochrome #1

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I was planning a series on the somewhat cliche subject of order and chaos. The thesis being that the most interesting art is on the border between the two, while either extreme is uninteresting. A blank canvas is the most extreme example of order.

What is an example of boring order that is a small step above an empty canvas? To find that I decided to remove all color, and all sharp contrasting edges and transitions. Perhaps the simplest 2D geometric figure is the circle. So, fuzzy circles must be the answer.

Well, it turns out that even fuzzy black and white circles are interesting. Perhaps it is the simplicity itself that makes it interesting. Perhaps it is the irony of setting out do create something uninteresting that makes it interesting. It is surprising and fascinating. It gives me motivation to put the order and chaos project on the back-burner, and to set aside the brightly colored and twisty fractals for a short time to explore the world of fuzzy white dots.

Site Reset

I planned to slow down the posting for a couple of weeks to work on some of the site internals. That was a year ago. No, it does not take that long. Other, more interesting things kept me away. It was an easy task to put off. And it turns out a much larger task than anticipated.

Yes, it does not look like much has changed. Most of the changes are hidden. I added a custom database table and plugin to the WordPress install. The real source of the post and image data is on the local computer. Updates are made on the local system, where it generates a json file with the changes and pushes it to the remote web site. The WordPress plugin makes the necessary changes on the site. Working locally to create and organize content is easier. The automation helps ensure that the several easy, but also easy to overlook, steps to add a post are always done correctly.

It also helps ensure that my local install, remote test install, and live web site are the same. Nothing is more frustrating than when something works on the test site but fails on the live deployment.

Of course some stuff still does not work. But failing consistently is much better than working intermittently.