DESIGN AND COMPOSITION

repetition
Part IV: The Art in Taxidermy
by Stefan Savides
ALL PHOTOS BY LARRY BLOMQUIST

JOHN LAGER

REPETITION is one of the elements of design that can really pack a punch when properly employed. It is prominent in just about everything we see composed, as in music, landscaping, personal dress, interior design, and so forth and so on. I believe that repeating forms, colors, textures, and motion creates a certain amount of comfort to the eye. We all seem to do better with the constants in our lives than we do with the unknowns. When one views a piece with a great variety of forms, colors, and textures, it becomes unconscious work for us to register them all. The goal of any presentation is to be inviting to a viewer. The easier it is to view, the more a viewer enjoys it.

Another value of repetition is that it creates familiarity. In music, for example, we all enjoy the chorus in a song because even though each verse may be different, we can feel the comfort of coming back to the familiar part that we know. Repetition is the binding thread that runs through a composition, holding it together. Think of it as a pathway through a piece, just like steppingstones through a garden. If every stone was a different shape and color, the trail might not be as obvious and possibly difficult to follow. Our eyes also need a comfortable course when negotiating through a taxidermy composition.

JOHN LAGER. Our first piece is a beautifully mounted walleye by John Lager of Littleton, Colorado. John's work is not new to the pages of Breakthrough. He has been involved in the competition circuit for some time now and has done quite well for himself. I've had the pleasure of judging his work on numerous occasions. In this presentation he has quite simply created a base, which repeats the form of the fish. You can plainly see the belly-line as well as the tail impressions of the fish in the base. It's quite simple, yet very effective. The colors in the rocks also repeat colors found in this species. What else can I say, but "simple and sweet," and we all know about "simple" from last issue...

...Continued in the Winter 2002 Issue of Breakthrough.

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