Golden Idols

Golden Idols (v.1)

iPhoneography, 2017

Golden Idols (v.2)

iPhoneography, 2017

Made these a couple of years ago. Just getting around to posting them now, for basically two reasons. Firstly, I couldn't decide which version I liked better. I couldn't decide if the background was too busy in the first version, or too empty in the second version. Second, I couldn't think of a good title for the piece (always an issue for me, I semi-jokingly tell my students that titling work is that hardest part of being an artist). 

I settled on the first version as my preferred one maybe a year ago (version two seems to be missing something), but a title eluded me until this morning. I was looking through some older work made on my iPad, saw this, and the title just popped into my head. I googled 'golden idol', thinking it had some sort of biblical reference I was missing, but what turned up was the opening scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, so I figured I wasn't bringing up any distracting or unwanted associations with the title.

The photo was shot a few years ago through a shop window on Devon Ave. in Chicago, in the middle of Chicago's Indian/Pakistani neighborhood. The tentative plan for today is to visit Devon Ave. for groceries and dinner. Haven't been there in quite a while, and looking at this inspires me to bring the camera along as well.