Serendipity and pandas?
This painting was began as a demonstration piece. It was intended to be a clock face. I marked out the image, with that in mind. When I started painting, I created the shape as per my original plan, adding inks as felt right. I then stopped to let it to dry.
I photographed my progress as usual but, as I was adding it to my picture records, I noticed something odd. I saw a panda face with a surprised expression! I don’t know how it happened, but I remembered reading somewhere that the human mind is programmed to find faces, and will often find them in the most curious of places. This is more or less what I had.
Does this look like a panda to you?
Or am I being too fanciful? I decided to keep what I had and to enhance the inner panda. There’s a slight issue, the signature is upside down, but it works for me, so I’ll live with the incongruity.
I digress, what about the panda clock? How shall I display him? Upside down or right way up? Maybe sideways? I showed enough prescience to omit numbers from the clock. So there’s no added conflict there, but that’s the thing with serendipity. The happy accident is just that, accidental. Whatever was going through my mind at the time, pandas were not a conscious thought. I was thinking of clocks.
Good job I like Pandas! Here he is finished.
One last thought.
Is the happy accident
- The fact I created an image that looks like a panda or
- That I can see a panda in the image I created?
Anyone fancy a deep in-depth discussion of cause and effect, and the influence of chance happenings, in the causality of serendipitous occurrence? Sounds too much like philosophy to me, but what do you think?