I always thought a cool title for a show could be Cut and Paste

I was talking to a co-worker the other day who is a musician. We were comparing creative processes and both of us were struck by the similarities. One process in particular was cropping. Often times I will take a painting that is not working for me and crop it down till I find a composition that does work.
Here is a yupo drawing/painting that I did as a part of my first yupo series. In fact it was the last one of that series, never shown before because I really don't like it. It never evolved into a pleasing composition. In fact looking back at this painting, I remember I deviated from the original process which was about giving up control and just letting what ever happens flow out. I did this while I was in Maine during a winter vacation and I believe I used a picture from a magazine as a reference. That's when I broke the rules. This series was about doodling or freestyle journaling.

The poor composition of this piece really bothered me a lot and I was really tempted to just end it's life.  But my husband liked so I kept it around hanging it up from time to time to look at it with fresh eyes. I  did this for over a year.
Then I began cropping. Initially this means tapping white paper around the painting to indicate where I would cut it. It's amazing how cropping out can drastically change everything. Once I felt like the composition was right, I literally cut the painting down to a smaller size. This works much better. It now has a focal point.  While it is still not one of my favorites, I can at least call it "done." At least for now.