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.

Yeah... With Color!

Color is one of the first things we learn to want. As children we were given brightly colored plastic toys to hang above our cribs. The reds, greens, yellows and blues caught our eyes and we slowly learned to reach, to grab for what interested us. We also learned meanings behind the colors, such as pink for girls and blue for boys.
Even now, we assign feelings and ideas to different colors. Bright pink for girly, red for passion, whether it be love or anger. Green for sick, yellow for happy, and blue for sad.
More so, colors are used in advertisements to grab our attention and make us want to buy the product. Bright yellow suns are on put on tanning lotion, pink for barbie dolls and breast cancer awareness yogurts. When shopping, we usually tend to go for the recognizable colors, fonts, and logos. From everything from shampoo to ham products, we eschew generic and unrecognizable brands.

Performance Art

I unfortunately missed the performance art day, so I can't really talk about what all that was like. I can say that after watching various performance art videos that I can't say I'm impressed. I know that they're supposed to convey a very direct feeling or idea, and at the same time cause a reaction, but I just can't take them seriously. Performance art should be dance, theatre, not people playing with food and scaring people on the street. That reminds me more of Jackass.

I did find one artist (thanks to Rachel Fick's blog Love Letters From Laser) who does a series of very strange performance art videos that he posts on youtube. His name is Ryan Trecartin, and according to Rachel, his kind of work is all the rage in New York City right now. Here are some examples of his work:





And here's the link to his youtube account: http://youtube.com/user/WianTreetin

Upon first viewing his video, I couldn't help but be intrigued. It has an interesting, materialistic view on our generation, and I enjoyed it's fast, colorful showing. It's very entertaining!

Here's my performance art video. Thanks to Jason Bowers for his participation.



The point of performance art is to interact with the audience, and to cause a reaction. Our piece was fun and engaging, if not kind of awkward. I like how the film is in black and white and makes it try and be a old horror film, even though it's obviously not serious. People on the street usually reacted in a positive manner, if not a little surprised.

Enjoi Skateboards Logo

Enjoi is a skateboard company with a panda bear logo. Their logo is a panda, which could stand for a lot of things, but because of the way they use negative space to their advantage (the way the panda's white fur usually blurs with its background) and use the same panda side view pose, it is easily recognizable. It is also only black and white, which makes it easier to reprint or replicate with color. It's not too complicated- so it can be resized and printed on a variety of objects, such as t-shirts, skateboards, etc. I'd say this is a very strong logo for a skateboard company.

Newseum: Too New

A few years ago I went to the National Archives building here in Washington, DC. Before entering the vault o see the Deceleration of Independence and all those important documents we had to watch a short play involving two way mirrors to give the idea ghosts were around telling stories about our nations history. While it a relatively interesting story, I couldn't tell you want it was about today. But, I do remember that I was ready to move on as soon as they ushered us into the small theater.
Unless I plan on going to an Imax, watching a video/play in a museum is the last thing I want to do. I like to browse in museums, go at my own pace and kind of mull things over in my own world. Big dramatic set-ups tend to throw me off, and they usually tend to be even a little tacky.
That's why I really appreciated Blake Gopnik's article "Art Museum Expansion: A Conservative Trend?" There is nothing more annoying then clogs of people surrounding pieces. These days it is impossible to the Mona Lisa- she's surrounded by loud, disruptive tourists all clamoring to get a snapshot of her. Viewing art shouldn't be a race- it's supposed to be in a tranquil setting, with lot's of room to stand back and view.
In some ways I understand the museums' expansions, but more so for the amazing architecture's sake. Modern architecture is only getting more out there, but it tends to take away from the art (Which was sometimes the argument on buildings such as Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Spain).
When it comes to museums, I most relate to those who hang on to their eight track tapes, their records and their type writers. While the Newseum's website will be interesting and helpful when doing research (not unlike understandingduchamp.com) it's just not the same as viewing the real thing in person.
I mean, I've seen countless photos of the Mona Lisa, but can I really say that I've seen the Mona Lisa in her entirety?
Not until I get to Paris.