Genesis of a Refrigerator Dance
Explanation of the creation of Fat Lady Refrigerator Mambo 3, a controversial digital/non-digital combination painting/drawing/manipulation (not necessarily in that order) about which one sister said:
“You know, if ….. hadn’t said anything I may have thought that was you. I was relatively sure it wasn’t me because not big enough. Then I thought, Arletta doesn’t part her hair like that, who the heck is that.
You should do a pic of me. “
and the other said
“Thanks for the oh so flattering portrait, baby sister. I know where you live.”
Genesis of a Refrigerator Dance belongs to the following groups:
The Graphic Room-Graphic and Digital Art
If I’ve done things right, then you can click on the image above to be taken to where it is uploaded, for if you care to comment upon it. This writing below, is, more or less, with the image, but sometimes bits of it are blocked off by bits of the site. Not always the same bits either, which is weird! Come to think of it, I think I shall rewrite it and inadvertently give a blue man a thrill. lol
In June of 2008, my father traveled to Alaska, which is alright for him to do as I was born there and I say so. He took several digital photographs while he was there, some of which turned out very well and some of which turned out to be epileptic in nature, apparently. The one I was inspired by was a very seizured photograph, indeed.
This is the original digital photograph, courtesy of Bob Sloan (aka: Dad):
Yes, I could have just tossed it; maybe I should have. It’s just that, despite it’s lack of detail, and it being a pose which the person in the photograph would have best liked to be seen in, it had a certain charm; a quality of movement that went beyond suggesting physically exhausting mals all the way to suggesting a wonderful dance.
I played about with it, converting this, layering that, and ended up with this:
Here is the first drawing/painting/manipulation I created based on a funny thought: 
At which point, it not only suggested a wonderful dance, as done by a rather large and shapely woman, but now it suggested that she was doing it in the kitchen, with the refrigerator. The title ‘Fat Lady Refrigerator Mambo’ popped into my head, and I imagined a very cute, colored affair with a bendy refrigerator, notes wafting over and around the dance partners, food spilling out everywhere.
And, here it is BEFORE it got as colored as it did above, in fact, but after .. hmm .. tricky to explain. Okay, before I saved the one above, I printed off a copy of it, and then I drew on it. Later, I rescanned it in and went from there. Got it? Good. One can cause a time vortex, explaining the creation of true art in digital format. Here is the rescanned, drawn on print out:
Last night, doing much, much playing about, layering and alchemy mostly, I finally combined all the parts into a whole, adding in the notes, bending the refrigerator more, etc. So, even though she didn’t sing, the fat lady danced, and it was over!
If anyone looks at this and thinks “Ooh, that would be perfect for the ….. group.” , or such as that, by all means make the suggestion.
AnitaInverarity
Thats amazing Arletta, I love how you weave your work and go with the flow- I like the first drawing too where the “fridge” pops out.. Great peek into the creatvie process- I cant think of any groups but I did see a challenge pop up somewhere about in the kitchen- I will try to find that xx
Arletta replied
Cool! Cool! and, thank you! Cool!
izzybeth
very cool Arletta. thanks for sharing the process.
Arletta replied
Surely; and, thank you!
helene ruiz
love it!
Arletta replied
Thank you!