Flattery and criticism

This quote is one of my favorites:

I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free. — Georgia O'Keefe

When I was working on the thumbnails, naturally, I had to explore the drain concept.

Needless to say, it did not make it into the final version.

What did resonate with me, though, was the fact that flattery and criticism are two sides of the same coin. I decided to make them a reflection of one another, and that's the version I continued to work with.

As always, those Roman caps are quite challenging for me, so I spent a lot of time trying to get at least a decent looking version.

I would write out some letters, set them aside, and then come back with a critical eye a few hours later, and point out everything that was wrong.

Some ideas definitely didn't work, such as connecting the legs of the two R's:

Eventually, I got it to where I was not actively upset at the letters any more, and did the final version:

I'm glad I tried, but what I now learned is that all my mistakes are even more visible in the upside down line, since it is perceived more like a shape and less like letterforms that way.