BURNAWAY is honored to have Rocio Rodiguez set the stage for our new Artists on Art column, featuring artists discussing artists or artworks that have informed, irked or inspired them.
I am not comfortable with only what I know; it is what I don’t know that I am always seeking. That is why I pay attention when confronting an artist’s work that, at first, I don’t respond to. As an artist, what I find most useful is to have my eyes opened by someone else’s work that is very unlike mine.
I remember the first time I encountered Giorgio Morandi’s work—I hated it. The subject was a repetitive parade of badly drawn dusty bottles and boxes typically in the center of the composition. “Not much color sense,” I thought, “can’t he find a bright red in his palette? How can someone spend a lifetime painting the same objects over and over again?”
Many years later, I stood in front of three Morandis and I was dumbstruck. Upon looking, I found nuances in that work that I had never seen before—a color sense that was very reserved yet seemed expansive in that very contained world that he was depicting. An array of grays went from cool to warm as slowly as honey drips from a spoon. I was mesmerized by the paintings’ awkwardness and yet elegant simplicity. What once looked like bad drawing now seemed personal, autobiographical. The tentativeness of the brushstrokes—this wasn’t about flinging paint around and making noise, this was about being quiet. It is almost as if these paintings contained a question and answer and at the same time also expressed a lot of doubt. Not all of Morandi’s work feels this way to me. Some of his paintings are clumsy. But, I do appreciate an artist that makes great work and also stumbles.
More history on Giorgio Morundi and his works. -BBL
Morandi deliberately limited his choice of still life objects to the unremarkable bottles, boxes, jars, jugs and vases that were commonly found in his everyday domestic environment. He would then 'depersonalize' these objects by removing their labels and painting them with a flat matte color to eliminate any lettering or reflections. In this condition they provided him with an anonymous cast of ready-made forms that he could arrange and rearrange to explore their abstract qualities and relationships.
Morandi's compositions and choice of still life objects allude to his Italian heritage. When assembled together in a still life group, his dusty bottles and boxes take on a monumental quality that evokes the architecture of medieval Italy - a style with which he seems at ease. Morandi's own city of Bologna has many examples of medieval architecture and is home to the oldest functioning university in the world: the "Alma Mater Studiorum", founded in 1088.
Special to The Seattle Times (All photos from Nora and Sandra Pope's gardening books-BBL)
OUR SENSE OF color is fickle, as changeable as our perception of garden color when it rains, or when a cloud passes beneath the sun. If you visited the Seattle Art Museum’s recent Yves Saint Laurent fashion exhibit, and walked through the hallway with thousands of fabric swatches arranged in cascading shades from deep umber to brightest pink, you probably experienced color as visceral, intense, engaging.
Such a bravado show of color stirs up memories and emotions. So do the many tints and shades in a garden, but unlike a museum exhibit, gardens aren’t static. Gardeners are always messing about with color, creating and rearranging combinations of leaf and flower. But this color play is nothing compared to nature’s contribution to the garden scene. Plants morph in color, texture, shape and size through the seasons. Then there’s fog, rain, sun, mist, frost, dawn light and moonlight, all of which change how we perceive color by the minute, hour and day, as well as the time of year.
So how, with all this flux and possibility, do gardeners develop such inexplicable yet stubborn color prejudices? Years ago, it seemed that everyone scorned orange. Then hot colors replaced pastels in our affections. Remember when the pairing of dusty pink with silver foliage was cool? After seeing so many gardens seared by the dramatic combo of black and chartreuse, the pairing of pink chrysanthemums with dusty miller seems pallid and kind of quaint. Gardeners tell me they adore violet, anything violet, but would never let a white flower in their garden. Go figure.
Flowers and foliage in new colors are introduced every year, and our tastes change. Who would have thought that ebony flowers, the darker the better, would be so prized? Right now, varying shades of green on green look fresh. It’s all about color, or lack of color, or the color on the underside of the leaves, or … well, you get the idea.
Strolling through lots of public and private gardens, looking closely, noting combinations of flowers and foliage that appeal to you, is a good way to get shaken out of color complacency.
So is flower arranging.
It’s so much easier to play around with color in the vase than in the ground: no transplanting involved. Varying textures and shapes allow for unexpected harmonies. You learn that glossy, deep-green leaves of camellia or magnolia help referee the most vivid colors. Grow foliage in every shade from plum to silver, and you’ll be able to mellow out any combination of flowers.
A passionate comment by glass artist Ginny Ruffner was most influential in broadening my sense of color. Years ago, I was interviewing the Ballard resident about her stunning garden. I made the mistake of asking her favorite color, and she nearly exploded in defense of every shade and tone. Ruffner said she loved them all and could no more choose between one color and another than she could choose between her own fingers. How freeing. After all, we have a virtually unlimited color palette, plus every shade of green, to work with.
All you need do is follow your eye, your memories and your heart as you play with color. You might as well have fun with it, because it takes only a hungry deer (WE HAVE MANY NIBBLERS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD-BBL) or a big windstorm (WE DON'T HAVE TOO MANY OF THOSE-BBL) to change the most carefully orchestrated color scheme. And then you get to start over.
Valerie Easton is a Seattle garden expert and freelance writer. Reach her at valeaston@comcast.net.
The Wicked Witch
in The Wizard of Oz movie sports a
green face. Green often connotes the idea that people sick with envy could turn
green. That old wicked witch was certainly jealous of Dorothy’s ruby slippers,
and the whole plot of the story hinges on her attempt to snag the shoes.
Centuries earlier,
Shakespeare’s Iago tells Othello to “beware the green-eyed monster” of
jealousy. But, Iago became the cunning cat who toyed with Othello to feed his
illusion that his faithful wife Desdemona is deceiving him. Shakespeare picked the
color which, at his time, had the negative connotations of natures that are
suspicious, bitter, unmindful, greedy, bland, undependable and deceitful, all
characteristics of Iago.
Despite some
negativity associated with green, it has many positive qualities in many cultures.
Spring season and the positive symbolism of jade associated with longevity and
rebirth are two desirable attributes to the Chinese. In Celtic mythology it was
the color of Tir na n’Og, Isle of the Blessed. Other positive connotations
associate green with being discreet, sensible, fruitful, benevolent, tolerant
and talented. Green symbolizes harmony on the color scale; it is midway between
red and purple. It is the bridge or gateway in the spectrum. Green connotes
prosperity, especially in business. And, it is nature’s favorite color. It
soothes most people. Because it is easy on the eyes, it has long been a popular
color in the work place. Green is versatile and it can be used effectively
indoors or out for home decor. It has connections to feelings of peace,
ecology, renewal, self-control, security, flexibility, and harmony.
International
interior designer Maria Killiam says: “Grass green is the most restful color. Green symbolizes self-respect
and well being. Green is the color of balance. It also means learning, growth
and harmony.”
Holly is one of the evergreens used in ancient
festivals as an emblem of hope amid the darkness of midwinter. The symbolism
was given a powerful new charge by Christian analogies between its thorns and
red berries and the Passion of Christ. Hence its central place in Christmas
decorations. Other evergreens are used to suggest immortality. And, who can
forget the gorgeous lyrics penned by Barbra Streisand for Evergreen, a lover’s fantasy which helped her win her first Oscar
for the best song.
Emeralds are often
associated with fertility, growth, and spring germination because of its hue.
It acquired folk symbolism as a lucky stone of conception and childbirth and
was believed to shorten labor. The emerald is the stone of the Pope because of
its connection with both faith and hope. In the Christian liturgical calendar,
green is the color associated with Kingdom Tide’s season, the period following
Epiphany which extends to Easter. Ministers wear green stoles during this
period of time.
Our language uses green
references for expressing both positive and negative traits identified with this
versatile color:
Good green
Green light - go, permission
to proceed with a task
The green room - in theater
or television it is the room where performers and guests go to relax
Green thumb – a person good
with plants
Greenback - US dollar bill,
money
Greener pastures - something
newer or better (or perceived to be better), such as a new job
Greens – healthy vegetables
Bad green Seattle’s Central Library painted its bathrooms an unpleasant shade of green in 2004 to discourage long-term use by the homeless. The library advocated for the city to build a downtown day shelter and hygiene center to better serve those in need.
Green-eyed monster - jealousy
Green with envy - jealous or
envious
Green - inexperienced,
untested, untrained
Greenhorn - novice, trainee,
beginner
Green around the gills -
pale, sickly
The Emerald City epitomized the place where all the short-comings of the Scarecrow, Tin Man and the cowardly Lion were erased. The green aura shining ahead of the quartet of seekers on the Yellow Brick Road draws them forward like a beacon promising fulfillment of their wishes and dreams. Each received what was desired. The Emerald City seems like heaven until one awakens from a detailed dream and home becomes better than one first realizes. Green was definitely the go-to color for Oz’s happy citizens.
“Green is
the color of primeval wealth---sappy green fields, the green of a woodland
glen---everyone can revel in it. It is this thin layer of green plant cells
that keeps us breathing, keeps us fed, keeps us alive. No wonder we adore it
and long for it when without it. The changing seasons add the melody to the
green of a planting. Spring shoots are often tinged with chartreuse, turn
blue-green in their fullness, and fade to biscuit yellow in the autumn before
they fall. The eye translates the fresh green of spring to excitement, change
and newness.
Surely
green is the color of Pan, god of life. Kirlian photography, which makes the
invisible emanation of the psyche visible, concurs: green is the lush,
sympathetic color.
George Harrison's Living in the Material World album cover
Colors are
rarely seen in isolation, so it is important to be aware of the optical effect
adjacent colors have on each other. Both Goethe in his theories of color
harmony and Chevreul in his 700 page monograph of 1839 about the Gobelins dyers
pointed out the phenomenon of successive contrast, the way in which the eye,
staring first at a color and then at a piece of white paper, will see on the
paper an afterimage in a complementary or opposite color. If the eye is fixed
on green, the successive contrast will be red; if fixed on yellow, violet; if
fixed on blue, orange and so forth. Each shadow is in perfect contrast, and
Seurat and Monet made use of this effect in creating the color depths of their
canvases. It results in a dazzling shimmer between pure red flowers and green
leaves.
(An excerpt from Nori and Sandra Pope’s gorgeous book Color in the Garden)
This year’s choice is Greenery, officially known as PANTONE 15-0343, and it’s described as a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring. I call it spring leaf green! Think of it as St. Patrick's Day green with a bit of yellow (a happy color) added to it.
“The tangy yellow-green speaks to our desire to express, explore, experiment and reinvent, imparting a sense of buoyancy,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute in a statement.
This chartreuse-like shade is said to encourage people to take a deep breath and reinvigorate.
The Pantone Color Institute in Carlstadt, N.J. is a division of X-Rite Inc., which is headquartered in the Grand Rapids suburb of Kentwood.
Pantone is considered a global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries.
One of the perks of being the Color of the Year is that the shade will show up in everything from fashion, home products and more.
Superb Canadian interior designer Maria Killiam declares: "The color for 2017 is kelly green (hooray, I've been waiting for this green for a long time) and the look is refined and generally warming up.
Green reigns supreme in 2017 as the most versatile colour with broad appeal.
Greens are getting both richer and warmer, moving away from the beachy, minty hues towards more grounded shades of yellow green spring shoots and deep leafy greens. (In other words, I think Pantone nailed it with Greenery this year).
Move over cool industrial edginess and laid back rustic everything, 2017 is the year we return to warm, cozy and luxurious layering!"
