Exquisite Corpse 3 - The Geometric Patterns

Exquisite Corpse 3 - The Geometric Patterns
© Natalie Schorr 2023

If you have spent more than 10 seconds looking through my work, you will probably have seen dots. Lots and lots of dots. Dots make me feel safe, and if I could explain that I would but I can’t. It’s a personal issue, maybe from a past life. So it made a lot of sense to me when Walter Tevis from The Queen’s Gambit says:

“It's an entire world of just 64 squares. I feel safe in it. I can control it; I can dominate it. And it's predictable. So, if I get hurt, I only have myself to blame.”

To be honest, this piece makes me uncomfortable. Yes, there are dominos with lots of dots, There’s a grid pattern with squares and dots. And the body is surrounded by dots, so I really ought to like it. But there’s just something about the butterfly wing ears and the cowrie shell mouth that weird me out and I don’t know why. Feels like it ought to have fangs.

I think there’s value to stepping out of your comfort zone a bit every so often, but people really seem to respond to this piece, so maybe I’m on to something. Or maybe I just need a good night’s sleep.

Fun With Geometry

I spent a good portion of the day printing and playing with these background pieces and heads, working out a configuration. I wanted to use a heptagon, which in case you were wondering is a seven sided figure, wherein the spokes are at 51.43 degrees, more or less, which means I was able to make good use of that round protractor I’ve had for decades. I think I’ve got it worked out, so I cut and pasted the frameworks in, and pasted the heads to some old atlas pages, weighted them down to hopefully dry reasonable flat, and we will see what tomorrow brings.