Colors In Thoughts

I think in colors. Days of the week, schedules, I envision as almost a Candyland map. Each day has a different color, and I almost have to graph my days out in my mind to keep straight when I have to wake up, when to go to what class... My mind is highlighted for me. I find it fascinating the different ways people think and what different flashes of color mean to them- how can you can see a flash of red and be automatically reminded of something. How we can imagine music to have it's own color scale along with its music scale, flowing up and down around your mind.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/smthngtwenty/

I never really like a ton of realism when it comes to my drawings. Colors are more like accents, and there's usually only one or two colors used. When it comes to painting I'm usually pretty realistic when it comes to color palette.
I don't really think about it, either. I'm not picking pink because it's girly, or because blue is sad, it's just whatever feels most natural.
Sometimes I feel that the art world over analyzes things. Yes, the painting has meaning, sometimes more obviously then not. Frida Kahlo wanted you to think about the symbolism, but not everything has to mean something. Sometimes the painting's red because you like the color. Not saying that my work is meaningless. I just get tired of the analyzing.
Yesterday in Doug Lang's writing class we were talking about how going to an art school really effects you in a day to day way, how instead of just seeing a neon yellow traffic sign we think "ooh, colors!" and how we observe the color palette used on the mannequins in clothing stores. We critique everything, and we have a harder time appreciating things as they are.

Growing Up With Color

I've always loved color. When I was younger I'd constantly bug my mom for only wearing earth tones- even now I generally eschew the color brown within my fashion palette. (Excluding boots belts, and eye make-up.) For me color doesn't right away bring up social issues such as food processing. Instead, it reminds me of childhood, of bright colored toys, clothes, and days. I appreciate how important getting your favorite color of whatever is to children, and how it leads a lot of their "decision making" when choosing new toys or clothes or which marker to use. That's part of the reason I chose the picture of the old shoe in my last blog. That children's sandal being found in an abandoned village was so poignant to me. Chances are the child didn't get to buy their shoes by color- the part of El Salvador I was in is pretty poverty stricken.
I just see it as such a small thing- getting to have something the shade of your favorite color.

This summer there's a pretty good chance I'll be working as an intern at the American Girl headquarters. American Girl is the company that makes the dolls that are from different periods in American History. American Girl is all about Girlpower and good self esteem and acting like a kid when you're a kid, which is an interesting juxtapose, since Mattel owns American Girl. Mattel being the company that owns Barbie dolls, which are pretty much opposite of the stocky American Girl dolls who look like they would be young girls instead of the 20-something super thin barbie doll.



I'm glad there's at least some company advocating for girls to just have fun, be the young girls they are, to like animals and colors and reading or whatever it is they do instead of growing up too fast.