S_V_H Wings of Victory image4
Wings of Victory the School Fight song for Northwest Missouri State University. After spending so much time with shades green (all the shades of green that I could mix in two weeks worth of effort ) I had no clear idea what I was going to do with the stems. Generally, with most steps in an artwork, I never have any clear ideas. The ideas clear themselves, and then I say, “yes, that is what I will do.”
Because I had, for some unknown reason, abandon white for my musical notes, white then became the necessary theme for the stems for these notes. At first I tried all white stems, with streaks of green, similar to Image 3 of Take Five. The green dabs looked awful. There was this long pause, along with long stares. I knew as I looked at this green-shady artwork that I needed a fresh take. This artwork, and me, where both in a slump. Then a thought occurred.
Towards the end of my two weeks of, lets mix another dozen shades of green tonight, like we did last night, phase I found a green that kinda look like the green of the Schools colors, but that was more fun to look at. I noted that green, and place a sample in one of my many sample jars that were already full of forgotten lumps of green-shady greens. Eureka, I then washed the white off of the stem. I painted that stem that special green. More green was not what I needed, but I knew that this time I was going to doom this green. Instead of squeegeeing a little white to add contrast, I globbed it on my special spreading tool, and let it flow across the stem, that I had covered with my special shade of green. And it worked. I let a little of that green peek through, just enough to loosen up the look of the now all white stems. When done I looked at this two toned artwork, and for the first time I felt good about it. The work was coming into its own: the painting began to breath on its own. This artwork is starting to let go of me.
Scott Von Holzen
