An earlier version of this abstract image was scrawled in an idle moment onto a roughly-square piece of wallpaper backing sheet, which might still exist although I haven't seen it for a few years. I got told off for using bad materials, and it was suggested that I should recreate it on a proper canvas. I was then given a blank two-foot-square canvas, which amounted to a final prod on the subject, so I went ahead with the recreation.
Whilst primarily an acrylic painting, Open to Interpretation isn't fully painted - the white background is just blank canvas, which in hindsight may not have been my best idea as it's getting a little grubby around the edges these days. I also made extensive use of a wide-nibbed metallic marker pen to add the 'gold' elements.
The title is perhaps a little tongue-in-cheek, referring to the fact that I saw the piece as an exercise in entirely abstract geometry (much like The Arc Phase Variations), and I've been fascinated to see how others reinterpret it and read more specific imagery into it: the most popular ideas seem to be that it represents the sun itself, and/or a sunflower. My own preferred nickname for it has varied, but I'm sure I've caught myself more than once thinking of it simply as 'the yellow one'.
The acrylic-painted spiral motif would recur three years later (and more successfully in my opinion) with Vortice au Chocolat.
