Even though I am loath of rushing with my painting, I have just finished another board. And this is only days after the last one! If I continue at this pace, I will exhaust my stash of plain boards in the attic in four or five years rather than nine or ten, as planned. Be that as it may, on one side there is a simple geometric pattern that spells “or” in Croatian, or ili. A while ago I spotted it in the headlines of local newspapers, and it immediately struck me as one of my paintings. Ever since, I have been seeing it in the newspapers quite regularly, and so I eventually decided to paint it in black and white. It is a joke of sorts, but, admittedly, not a very funny one. On the other side of the board, which strikes me as the main one, there is a red orthogonal symbol on white background that can be construed as a pentagonal star bungled by a small kid—say, a toddler. It looks like a Greek letter Pi with another leg stuck in the middle on top. Awkward, heavy, stunted, silly, inelegant, the symbol gives me a great deal of joy. In my excitement, I could not but call it the Motovun star.

Addendum I (October 11, 2007)

I have nothing to add to the above except further laments. And, yes, I have just finished another board, only a day after the previous one. Surprise, surprise, it is yet another Motovun star. This time it is white on a black background. It is magnificent, too. On the other side of the board I put the star’s geometric structure in black on a white surface. As if it were needed. At any rate, here it goes. Take a golden-section rectangle and place it so that it sits on its longer side. Divide it in half lengthwise. And then divide the upper half in two and the lower part in three breadthwise. That is the structure of the Motovun star. It is magnificent, indeed. But the joy it gives me is difficult to put in words.

Addendum II (November 4, 2015)

Having come across this piece and the first addendum in one of my uncharted voyages through my Residua, I was a bit confused when I first read that there were two boards with the Motovun star painted on them. I thought there was only one such. Even more, I did not remember ever painting a red one on white background. I looked at the livingroom walls from the dining table, where I was sitting at the time, and found the Croatian “or” in a jiffy. I got up at once, walked up to the board, and turned it around. The Motovun star was there, all right. Delighted by my discovery, I turned around several boards next to it, and I was surprised by what I saw. I did not remember any one of these paintings, which were painted at about the same time. At any rate, the Motovun star delights me to this day. It is awkwardness as such.