Venice Dream
This is from a Kodachrome slide. It was taken in the shade and so there is a strong blue tone to the slide. I can’t abide cool colors. I love warm yellows, reds, browns. I try to vary my color palette, but I can’t. There is a nerve inside me that ‘twangs’ in the most irritating ‘twang’ when I work in the cool color spectrum. Yet, yesterday and today I’ve gone to fuschia tones. I know it is reddish, but it is a blue red and so maybe I’m making progress.
I used a filter that gives those squiggly marks all over the photo. Sort of a moire look. Do you know what moire is? It is a type of silk that looks as if water had been spilled on it. We loved it back in the day. It was used for drapes and upholstery and maybe ball gowns. I don’t think I ever owned anything made with moire. It seemed like something that a princess would own.
I blurred this photo as well after using my fuschia layer on it. The blurring hides the mundane chairs and tables in the foreground. Now the eye notices the flowers instead of chair backs. And the top of the column with St. Theodore gleams golden after my work instead of the harsh white of my original slide. The soft focus reduces the jumble of lines created by the piano lid and the light post. They detract from the composition by causing the eye to jump around to make sense of it all. The blur makes them harmonious. I think I just must add this to the “silk purse” category.
When I remember Venice, I remember eating a huge slab of Tira Misu. That dessert was new to us Americans then. Now it’s everywhere and people think it is ordinary. If it is well made, it is not ordinary and never will be.