As wonky as this looks, this is me studying colour theory. I know it seems primary to be going back this far into my education to studying something so basic, but it has it’s perks. A recent academic assignment asked me to illustrate an emotion using colour. It’s a simple task when think about it. The psychology of colour runs deep with people, whether they have a formal artistic education or not. And I have always had an interest in the subliminal meanings colours have.
I added some elements within this painting to further push the idea of the emotion I was playing with. I like working with grids and patterns, so I manipulated a basic 20×20 grid to have it’s lines mimic the emotion I was using. Have you figured out what emotion I was playing at? I suppose there could be multiple answers; however, the emotion in particular that I chose to illustrate using colour and line was doubt. Doubt to me is a festering and aching feeling that holds onto something true. I tried to use colours that represented infection and swelling, and tried to use lines that collapse and become jagged when amongst the “infectious” colours. I don’t think I can explain this project any better. It’s simple, with a twist. Painting all the individual shapes put me into a trans-like state. Csikszentmihalyi calls the phenomenon “flow“. It’s when hours become minutes and minutes become seconds. So true.
crap greg…that’s really rad