Smashing Color

The Mingei International Museum in San Diego is currently showing their collection of polymer beads and beaded jewelry in New Jewelry in a New Medium: The Art of Polymer Clay.  

I visited the Mingei a few years ago when my friend Doshi had a one woman show of her fiber art. Its a beautiful museum in a beautiful setting. Located in the heart of Balboa Park, the museum showcases folk art, craft and design from around the world.  I’m thrilled to have some of my work included in the show.

The exhibit combines two collections representing the work of over 60 polymer artists. A colorful “Chitin” necklace by Cynthia Toops from the late 1990′s is featured above. For more information and a list of the artists you can go to Polymer Art Archive.

Mingei International Museum: Polymer Exhibit

Putting colors in order according to value can be tough. Here are the twelve colors from the post about value last month. I put them in the order I thought they should go and scanned the results in grayscale.

They fall into three value ranges – dark, medium, and light but, as you can see, the middle colors from the green to the orange are all a jumble. That’s because its hard to see value separate from hue and saturation.

Sometimes I take swatches into a closet, close the door and then open it just a hair. The lightest colors pop. Then I open it another hair and the next lightest colors pop. I keep going until all the colors are in order. This method is accurate up to a point. (Sometimes there’s an issue with the reds. Could be Perjinke Shift but that’s another post.)

You can take a photo or make a black and white copy – but again this is only fairly accurate. Scanning in grayscale seems to work better but it’s not foolproof. Some quilting books recommend using a red filter gel – but that really doesn’t work!

Anytime you want to know for sure which colors are lighter and which darker you can conduct this simple test that Albers recommends in his book.

1. Taking two colors at at time, overlap the corner of Color A with the corner of Color B. Stare at the overlapping area for longer than feels comfortable. You will start to see a halo around the edges.

2. Slide Color B to the side while looking at the area C.

3. If area C appears lighter than the rest of Color A then Color B is the darker of the two colors. If area C appears to be darker than the rest of Color A then Color B is the lighter of the two colors.

Its easier to see the results if you start with colors that are not as close in value and work you way into comparing colors that are very close in value. When you can’t see any afterimage then you know that the colors are the same value.

When is the best time to use this trick?  Anytime its important to get the value relationships right. Maybe you are putting together a complex skinner blend going from dark to light but two of the colors are so close you’re not sure what order to put them in. Do a quick afterimage check ala Albers.

Another time to try this test is when you plan to use a bright color and a muddy color in a cane.  If the value of  two colors next to each other are too close they will blend together. This may not be what you want. Its easy to think the muddy color is darker than it really is so do a quick check to determine if it really is darker or if the two colors are too similar in value to work in your design.

Its also easy to be fooled by colors with white in them. Sometimes a tinted purple will appear to be lighter than a pure yellow green. Just because it has white in it doesn’t mean its lighter than a color without white. Do the afterimage check.

The test is not as easy as it looks. It takes some practice to see the afterimage as lighter or darker than the surrounding color. Area C is often very saturated and glowing and that can throw you off. But with practice you will be able to sort through a whole stack of colors and get them into a smooth run from light to dark.

Women, Wind and Window II 1950

“I’d like to get all the colors in the world into one painting.”    Willem de Kooning

I grew up surrounded by paintings done by mom and dad. One of my favorites is a large canvas that still hangs over the mantle in the living room. It was painted by my dad in the late 60′s. At some point in grade school, I can’t remember exactly when, I asked him about it. That was the first time I heard the name Willem de Kooning.

Woman Sag Harbor 1964

I have to admit that I never really liked de Kooning’s paintings, especially the later works. The colors seem so garish. The images so – well – ugly.  The paint seemingly applied haphazardly. The work apparently unfinished.

In art history classes I learned that de Kooning is considered one of the most important painters of the 20th century –  a leader in the Abstract Expressionist movement and a master of dynamic, gestural, action painting.  How could something I considered ugly be Art with a capital “A”?

During one of the forums at the opening of the Terra Nova show in October, the director of the Racine Art Museum, Bruce Pepich, asked the audience of polymer artists to consider the difference between “pretty” and “beautiful.”

Pepich and Lena Vigna, the curator for the polymer show, suggested that something “ugly” could be beautiful but never pretty and dared us to stop making pretty things and start making beautiful things. I’m still absorbing this difficult idea.

The recent major MoMA retrospective of de Kooning’s work and the invitation from the Xanudu Gallery to join the virtual book group reading the 2005 Pulitzer prize winning biography de Kooning: An American Master by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan came at just the right time.

I’m going to read the book and spend some time going through the decades of de Kooning images on the MoMA site.  I’m hopeful that this will give me some insights into where his art came from, some idea of why he is one of my father’s influences, and a better appreciation for the beauty of ugliness.

MoMA: de Kooning Retrospective
To register for the book webinar: Xanadu Virtual Book Group
The Art Story: The Life and Work of de Kooning