enormous tiny art 12 - crayola and braille
crayola 16 pack |
what did i do this summer in the studio? i did this.
if you know me, you know that i'm fascinated with color. and when i taught a color theory class last fall that just intensified. i've always been curious about how we name colors. how the perception of color is a highly individualized affair [your turquoise may be different from my turquoise]. how color so effects what we like, how we feel... a while back i read victoria finlay's book on color - it added to my interest in knowing about the historical significance of pigments.
wild watermeolon |
then i read somewhere that since crayola crayons more kids are able to name more colors with esoteric names - not just the standard blue or light blue but cerulean and periwinkle.
dandelion |
when i was a kid my mom transcribed braille for awhile. she had this typewriter and she would sit and "translate" books and documents. i LOVED the braille. i thought it was cool that my mom could read the elevator plaques in braille with her eyes. it was like a secret code. i could't believe that you could make the whole alphabet and a bunch of words with a series of 6 dots.
fern green |
then i thought i'd embroider the names in braille with french knots. it's sort of a tongue in cheek joke right? if you are blind and can't actually see the color you still get to know what it is. if you are sighted and want to name the color you don't get to know the actual name unless you can read braille. in the end everyone gets to "read" the color in their own way.
luckily deb at nahcotta gallery thought they'd be great for the enormous tiny art show - which by the way has so much good AFFORDABLE art it makes my head hurt. [in a good way].
you can gander at my pieces and purchase them if you are so inclined here.
and there's the whole set of them on flickr [and below - if you are in a reader or on a phone the slideshow might not work, but...]
Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer
Comments
KUDOS to you and to your Mom for having inspired you.
I have the book on the history of color that you mentioned, and it's going with me to the beach this week to be read! Color is one of my very favorite things. I think naming conventions and even naming trends for color is such a fascinating topic, not to mention how we each can perceive color so differently.
Yes! I really like this idea. And the work you made based on this idea. A tremendous deal. Woo! Hooray! from Nth. Fitzroy.
And I always like reading about your process. How you introduce the idea, and the sense of play...
g xo