08/17/2024
Challenged myself to create a piece to submit for an upcoming digital art show at the Peninsula Art Academy. The basic building block for this image was a photo of two cicada wings, which I had crossed to form a Gothic arch (see second photo for the original, which, btw, was the very first thing I ever posted on Instagram). After making the cells of the wings transparent, I added lots of color behind them to (sort of?) evoke stained glass windows. Then all hell broke loose in the house of stained glass, and I wound up with this vaguely, not-round kaleidoscopic/mandala-ish affair.
The handwriting behind it all is a snippet from George Eliot's original manuscript of her 1871-1872 masterpiece Middlemarch. One of my favorite lines from the book: "I believe that people are almost always better than their neighbors think they are." I try to believe that too. Some days it's easier than others.