I wonder if I can sort out time here, just as a compulsion to be accurate. There are three "times" involved, when I create the art, when I write these words and when I publish the post. I created the first four items in this series some months ago. I only recently decided to dust them off and write about them. I hope to publish these words a week or two after I am writing them.

This one and the next one I created just a few days ago. I was about to write that I gave up and went down another path. I did, and I will get to that soon. But saying that I gave up became a challenge. Did I give up too soon? Was I just in a rut? Am I feeling more, or differently, creative now?

The next two are loose variations of the first one. Some of the same colors, similar, but much fewer and larger, shapes. I am putting them here because they are related to the discussion. But they really belong in an "official" series. I hope to create such a series in the future. For now, I am including them with the "rejects" to provide some contrast.

Yesterday's comments apply here as well. This one is a keeper, I will work it into a future series.

And now, back to the story…

Following the approximate chronological order, today's image shows another path I followed after Transition #2.

Still too busy, and the wrong colors.

More colors, but the colors are not heavily mixed, just two at a time. I like the wavy flow, but it is not enough to carry the whole piece. The tame area in the lower left is not enough. Either it should be left out or cover about half the piece.

Now almost 50/50 between the wavy parts and the quiet parts. Still too much going on.

With a whole lot of discipline, I greatly reduced the complexity. This one is good. A totally difference mood, not what I was looking for. But good enough that I may recall it and publish it in another setting in the future.

I set yesterday's minimalist piece aside and headed in the opposite direction. Instead I wanted to emphasize jagged lines with sharp corners.

I forked two paths from the previous. Here is an example of one path, fewer lines, less collisions. I felt it was getting better. I tried several other variations, but I could not get the jagged lines to work as the main, foreground, feature.

I did eventually come back to this one.

The other path mentioned yesterday led here. Fewer colors and subtle shades. I am able to keep my jaggies, but they are not the foreground.

The colors and shapes suggest some deep sea turbulence.

Brighter with more browns. I like where this is going. I set these aside to be the starting point for a new future series.

Along the way I shifted from the tiling to jagged sawtooth lines. This seems to have potential, but it also did not go anywhere. Either too uniform, or too mixed.

If you look closely you can see areas with the sawtooth edges organically become other more complex shapes.

Here is a newly created, very loose, variation of Transition #16. I liked how the intersection and overlay of multiple sawtooth patterns created unexpected shapes in places. It is a bit of an illusion in the original. Those shapes seem interesting because they are small, they lack detail, so the brain fills in the details. Anyway, it was difficult to create this effect on a larger scale. There are a lot of overlays here, with differing degrees of distortion and small shade variations.

Anyway, I am quite pleased with the result, this could be a starting point for a new series.

Back to the past. A little after Transition #16 I came up with this one. It felt like a big step in the right direction, although it is hard to say exactly why. The colors are better. There are a lot of details, and they are supported by the overall composition.

I thought I would build a series around this. After a few failed attempts to create follow up pieces, I gave up. They were either too similar, or they lacked whatever it was that made me attached to this piece.

I liked the texture in the white/gray areas. I made some pieces to emphasize that feature. They were interesting enough, but not what I was going after. I will return to those later.

Tomorrow I will talk about another path I took from here.

This one of the variations that I prepared for a series. In retrospect, I may want to revisit these in the future. For now, as part of this transition story, the key element is less density.

I added a few more colors. At the time I was somewhat conflicted. I did not like the sawtooth patterns, but that was integral to the design. When I removed them, things were too smooth, not enough detail, not enough conflict.

This one I made just a few days ago. It is an amalgamation of several pieces I made after the previous. So, while not techincally a part of the transition journey, it simplifies the telling.

Compare this to Transition #13. The sawtooth chains are given much more randomness and become these jagged shapes. They fit better here than they did in #13.

And, yes, I was playing with colors along the way, and arrived at this more colorful palette.

Jumping back to transition mode. Next up are two that I removed from the Fractured Zone A series because they were too busy and had too many colors.

Some similar ones did make the cut. While still busy and colorful, the bulk of the series has slightly reduced complexity and fewer colors.

For the transition story, I want to point out the areas where the background is completely covered. Look at the upper left of the previous or the center of this one. Tomorrow's image has no background.

The recent images had areas of empty canvas, either white or black in the background.

I can't really say that there is no background here. There is no empty canvas here. There are multiple layers, with the later layers partially covering the earlier layers. So the first layers become the background.