Ch-ch-ch-changes

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

Badlands, now (left) and then (right)

Fugitive dyes, migrating materials, slow-moving chemical reactions — sometimes art changes over time. What’s a girl to do?

Well, I just try to sit back and enjoy it, honestly. When the salt formations in Badlands (above) began to fade from pale pink to white, I did move it out of the sun (oops), and now I’ve been thinking of ways to sneak some pink back in. Which is hilarious, because I remember being all baffled by what to do with the pink salt in the first place, since pink is so not my color. How far we’ve come!

I will try to warn a buyer if I think a piece will change over time, so they don’t get disappointed, but sometimes it comes as a surprise. If you remember my series of hibsicus tea paintings, it’s been very illuminating to pull them out of their storage drawer and find that the color-changing reactions have continued to (very slowly) continue to change colors as time goes on. You can see how the tea has faded to a more subtle color in the whorls of Hibiscus Green below.

Hibiscus Green, now (left) and then (right)

Mixing materials in wacky experiments also sometimes has long-term results. While the copper paint from these two little pots seems to have stayed where it was put, the salt in Midnight Rain (below) has meandered out to the edges of the iridescence and created a different — but to my mind no less appealing — set of shapes and colors.

Midnight Rain, now (left) and then (right)

All of these changes are really subtle, as you can see from the photos (not to mention the inherent dangers in color correcting with Photoshop). In a way, I see it as the art continuing merrily on its way without me, and giving me extra bonus results that I never expected.

What do you think, how would you feel if a piece of art you bought changed itself to something else, right before your eyes?

Categories: Daily Art, Words Words Words
Tags: changes, hibiscus, info, salt