THE POWER OF COLOR

We possess the ability to perceive millions of colors. Overtime, we’ve come to utilize color for organizing everything from traffic, to electronic wiring, to medicine and more. It offers us important signals of life and death – of health and sickness. Color not only identifies the world to us, we rely on it to make sense of our surroundings and quickly ascertain the nature of things.

We respond in a variety of ways to color and color combinations – the mere mention of color in song or verse can evoke a stream of emotions from calm to ferocity. Most people have favorite colors. Street gangs think they own them. The fashion world selects a few to elevate to celebrity status each season. But color is a mischievous playmate. It changes with light or context – it can dance or collide.

With paint, I weave my colors, searching for the exquisite relationships that might bring about that harmonious hum or violent discord – the immense number of possible combinations make it a task that is at once exhilarating and exhausting to contemplate. By allowing the color to “drive”, I become the vehicle and the first-hand observer. I don’t expect every combination to yield perfection, I only hope to enjoy moments of awe, calm or intensity during the process, and to share them with the viewer and realize that there is also beauty, life and electricity found in the imperfect, unexpected arrangements as well.

Color is a mood enhancer and through paint it is my natural anti-depressant. I see color akin to musical notes. It’s no coincidence they both are described in terms such as soft, loud or bright – they have keys and tones. I experience muted colors as chords and saturated colors as crescendo. It is naïve to think we can control color; we can merely coax it and observe. It is alive and ever changing and once you acknowledge its power as your teacher, it becomes your ally in the struggle not to struggle.

“LONG DIVISION” – A SERIES OF DIPTYCHS

I began this series about two years ago by challenging myself to make two pieces that were simultaneously separate and unified. In doing so, I was able to let go of my life-long concern with subject matter and immerse myself in what has been the impetus for my painting since I can remember – the world of color.

Over time, the divided canvases I faced each day began taking on an inescapable new meaning for me – as an allegory for the division that seems to be mounting everywhere around the world. I became more aware, not only of the spatial divisions around us such as walls, fences and doors, but of the growing political, religious and economic chasms that typify our time. With advanced technology, extremists of nearly any viewpoint can gain attention and reach the masses with their simple-minded philosophies. Unfortunately, to get ratings or book sales, it’s audacious extremists that often get the most airplay and are suddenly mainstream.  As extreme viewpoints are passionately put forth, we become more polarized and less tolerant of differing opinions and lifestyles. Hence, the divisions grow wider.

Can art play a part in turning this disturbing tide? I honestly don’t know. But if these paintings can offer a metaphor for harmony despite separation, or the possibility of working relationships across a divide, then perhaps it’s a step in the right direction.