Pleated Illusion

The blog has been quiet these past few days. If you follow me on social media, you know it's because my mother recently passed away on Sunday, after eight tough years battling Alzheimer's.

Last night, I tried to get back into my routine. I spent a few hours working on a piece, which was challenging but I made some progress I was happy with. However, it always seemed incomplete. Even though I like how it looks now, I want to give it what it needs when I figure it out. I got frustrated and stopped working to watch some videos instead. Before bed, I decided to start something new without any expectations, just to see if any ideas would come up for the next day.

I zoomed in a lot on the work I had abandoned earlier until the pixels were clearly visible squares. I took a screenshot of that area, pasted it into a new file, and resized it to 4000x6000, which is the size I usually work with.

I duplicated that grid pattern and mirrored the new layer both horizontally and vertically, using the Difference mode.

Then, between those two layers, I added a couple of textures I had used before—one of rust and another of a streak of light created by intentional camera movement. The result was attractive but not impressive. On the top layer, I merged another light texture, and while exploring folders, I found a texture of metallic fence photographed with shallow depth of field.

This texture took the composition to another level, creating the illusion of a curtain over the grid. It was just an illusion, though, because when you look closely, you can see the grid is straight with no waves. I liked this disorienting effect, and the only thing I did next was overlay another copy of the grid to bring back some of the color that had faded with each new merge.