Backgrounds - or the lack thereof.....

"The Politics of Nature", 20"x30"... how often has one seen pictures of the neighbors talking over the backyard fence, and one figuratively 'sitting on the fence'? does it need anything more to show? would adding anything gain or lose the impact? but, it is being said, there are no persons at the backyard fence - only a couple of vegetations... true, and that is what makes this more than a metaphoric rendering - there is an analogy employed as well, for how much of backyard conversing is anything more than a variation of 'watching the grass grow' or ' watching paint dry'?

But, to get back to the central question, what if anything could be added to this in the way of background which would or could contribute to the theming - so, if nothing, then why have anything... not all renderings require flush-walled rendering to be a complete fine art contemplative work [ note the "Original sin" and "Four bitten Fruit" renderings exampled previously - sure, a lower wall to the ledge could had been added, as another wall behind the whole, but would that have increased the theming, or would it have detracted from what was there?]... note, tho, the "Yearning Tree" rendering, which does have a distant background, and how it coheres everything by being there, and which would be less the rendering for the lack of that background... this is why theming needs be given the thought so rarely given - it makes not only the question of whether to have a background, but often what kind and how much it needs intrude [if any] to the fore to be an integral aspect of the rendering [this same holds true, btw, with portraiture, which is why so often photographers use some bland cloth behind their subjects - anything else intrudes or interferes with the 'main event']...