Color theory. It is a well thought out process that any halfway decent artist thinks about when planning their painting. Planning a piece of art you say? Does that really happen? Yes. Many people think that great art just "happens", that you just get a blank canvas and go for it. Some art is indeed done this way, but most art has a very long, drawn out (pun so intended) process. Most artist have intent in a painting, and the original idea of how they are going to express something is far from how it ends up being. The first idea is always the boring, obvious one. This, in my opinion, separates the good from the bad. Like writing, visual art is edited until the artist wants to maliciously rip the painting into a million little pieces and never look at it again. Perhaps that's why most artists are so cynical. Their work drives them insane.
Color theory is a very complicated and controversial subject. Color theory is what its name is, just knowing what colors will look good together and what color combinations will ruin a work of art. Some believe that a great color theorist is born, and it isn't something that you can teach. In the interview that was linked from salon.com, two color theory experts were inteviewed about their feelings on the subject. They both agreed that anyone can learn color theory, and I cannot agree more. Thomas Bosket, who teaches color theory at Parson's New School of Desgin said "I have taught unteachable [color theory] courses for 16 years and have never found a student to be unteachable. That is a myth based on teachers who want to feel like exclusive geniuses. "Genius" is not born; it’s in all people but it needs to be tapped. That is done by reaching into the well of creativity, finding our own unexpected reaction or response to a need of society that is yet unmet."
Being a fan of color theory and artwork in general, I die a little every time I walk into our school. None of the pod colors really work for me, and I often wonder who they paid to make this school look so "retro". Just because it's a 'retro" style does not mean it needs to look bad. I also do not understand why we would go for such a look when the whole idea of a new multi-million dollar school was to bring us into this century. It seems like a terrible, orange tiled step back. Seriously though, mustard colored walls and bright scarlet orange tiles? Clearly the person who thought that up had it out for this little town and wanted to make the town look absurd. Mission accomplished.
This interview had a lot of ethos, because the men being interviewed were experts in their field. They know what they're talking about. It also surprisingly contained some pathos. Colors do express emotion. The teachers do this really cool project where their students have to paint on their hands to match their skin. Bosket said "Color is the most emotional element and to create a refined response we need to tap into our emotions (our psychological makeup) and that is a very dream-like arena, a very personal arena. So, instead of having them match any random color I thought, "why not have them paint a very personal color!" and that was their skin. (This assignment has led to some amazing discussions about expectations and preconceived notions. Another longer discussion!)" So the next time we build a new school, I think that we should get one of these men; as they clearly understand how deep a hue can be.
The first part of the interview.
The second part.
Hmm. I would like to think that isn't too late to repaint some of our walls, at least. The hallways aren't bad compared to the classroom walls. Or maybe they did have a color theory guy help pick the themes. Maybe boring, aesthetically displeasing colors make it easier to focus on boring school lessons, which are made interesting by comparison.
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