Smashing Color

with Maggie Maggio

The Colors of Cape Disappointment

Over the last few years I’ve explored the color of light in all sorts of ways using computers, gels, prisms and LED’s. I’ve learned how to describe the same color in many different languages – Lab, RGB, Hex, CMYK, etc. But none of that prepared me for the joy I felt this weekend seeing the colors of […]

Chromolocomotion: Train Stations and Tetris

My husband and I had one day to spend in London on our way home to Portland this week. We visited the Viking exhibit at the British Museum, took a selfie across the street from 221B Baker Street (no – we did not go in since there was no 221B in Conan Doyle’s time) and […]

CMY in 3D Printing

There are a number of companies claiming to have the first full-color printer using cyan, magenta, and yellow to mix all the colors of the rainbow in three dimensions. The color charts above are from the Stratosys Object 500. Those triangles look so familiar! I’ve been making the same thing in polymer for years. I […]

MLK

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. ” MLK Today we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. My daughter sent this photograph via Facebook.  She knew […]

Lite Sprites – Oh My Stars

I am appalled by the Lite Sprites.  Yes, I would love a light wand that could pick up colors from all around me and change the colors of  the lights in my room. No, I don’t like such a great idea being used in such a crass commercialized way. Lite Sprites are the latest hot […]

James Gurney and Eureka!

I found out yesterday that James Gurney of Dinotopia fame, and writer of one of my favorite blogs – Gurney Journey, was giving a lecture at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore tonight. Since its only about an hours drive from Damascus where I’m teaching this weekend I decided to combine his lecture […]

Journey to Crayola

Yesterday I visited the corporate offices of Crayola in Easton, Pennsylvania. It was the first step in my quixotic journey to gain widespread recognition for magenta and cyan as primary colors. Whenever I teach color workshops I find that most people don’t know that Red is not a primary mixing color in paint, polymer, dyes […]

Smashing Color Red

I own this Red.   I named it Smashing Color Red.     I did it to support UNICEF. The “Own a Colour” campaign aims to sell all 16.7 million colors that can be displayed on a computer for at least one British pound each (currently about $1.70 US). The money raised will go to support the […]

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Steve Jobs was the ultimate designer. He believed in the power of function married to elegance. In his honor, the website Fast Company put together a slide show of obituaries from around the world. If you haven’t had a chance to watch the video of his commencement address to the 2005 graduates of Stanford University, here […]

Primal Red

One of the challenges of teaching a color workshop is asking students to stop thinking of red as a primary when mixing pigments, dyes and inks. Even after demonstrating that magenta and yellow make red, its still mind boggling to relegate red to secondary status.   Why is it so hard to give up the […]

Art in the Pearl – 2011

Every Labor Day weekend I look forward to Oregon’s premier art and fine craft show, Art in the Pearl.  I did this show in Portland’s Pearl District for a few years way back when.  My favorite was one year right next to a huge tree that provided just the right amount of late afternoon shade. My […]

Trademarking Color?

Yves Saint Laurent vs Louboutin French designer Louboutin started using a glossy red sole on his high fashion shoes in 1992 and trademarked the red sole in 2008.  YSL’s 2011 spring collection included a red shoe with red sole – and a blue shoe with a blue sole, a green shoe with a green shoe, […]

Colorwheeling Cartoon Characters

This very fun color wheel came out last week in time for the opening of the new Smurfs movie.  How many characters can you name? The original version, at Slate.com, gives you the name of each character and the cartoon they inhabit. It reminded me of one of my favorite posts from a few years ago […]

From Flags to Feasts

Yesterday it was the flags of the world, today its the food. My friend Marsha’s nephew, Jesse Friedman, has started a four year project –  to cook a meal once a week from each of the 193 countries in the UN plus Palestine. His blog, United Noshes, will feature the stories and  recipes from each […]

The Flag of South Sudan

“The eyes of the world are on us. Everyone is watching us closely to see whether our first steps in nationhood are steady and confident. We must rise to the occasion and prove that we are capable of playing our honest part in the international community of nations.” From the official website of the government […]

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