Art is Life

Principals of art and life

There are principals in art that have a parallel in our lives.  One I am thinking about today is something that Juanita Greene Parks, my teacher, used to say:  “A component of good art is our ability to use gray to give our eyes a rest from color.”  This took root in me at a weekend art show where I found myself sitting across from a painter who loved vivid colors.  People were kind of knocked over by it. By the end of the 3 day show, I was happy to get away from all that color. I am personally drawn to bright colors. I love the way certain combinations affect me. I love those moments in a piece of art that can move me in my core. It is also important to learn how to finesse.   This is why I use orange as an under layer for a blue sky.  Orange is blue’s compliment.  Mixing orange with blue creates a gray.  This enables me to be bolder in my use of blues.

Life is like this too.  We need moments of “gray” to balance the color.  I am thinking that when it seems “nothing” is happening we can be thankful for the quiet , for the space to rest. I will consider myself a successful teacher if I get this point across. My goal in painting, is to get as much of myself out of the way as I possibly can. I want to enable the viewer to claim the image as part of their own story. Our stories are valuable. We write them with our decisions, our behaviors, our thoughts.

Pay attention to what you learn along the way. Narrate it with love and with color. Find what motivates you and examine it.  Share what you love and learn with others!