Tracking Colors

I’ve been trying to figure out how to research color trends.

My friend over at Think Sketch Design sent me a link to this Micro Fashion Network mapped out what colors people were wearing in Cambridge over time….

The graphics are beautiful!  They remind me of the backside of embroidery…  but I don’t really get it.  I mean, I understand their idea, but I don’t get how it’s translated into their graphics…  but maybe in time with a little research I’ll finally wrap my head around it!

But mapping out color trends is something tat I’m highly interested in.  Without access to high-tech equipment, how can I move forward in my own research?  Maybe one of these methods would work:

♦  Pick 5 – 7 established long-standing fashion designers and compare their lines each season going back at least 20 years, mapping out the color trends revealed each season

♦  Hit the history books!  Art history, that is, and go back through the ages mapping out what colors are most commonly found in each era.  First – I’d look at portraiture, and then any scene that involves people.  Maybe, as abstract work starts to become more prevalent, I’d examine the color most used…  although it may turn into a psychological study of what colors people find most aesthetically pleasing, which may not be linked to time-based trends at all.  hmmm

♦  I’d be interested in contacting fabric stores to find out which fabric lines are most popular/sell out fastest each year – or maybe quarterly…  Every fabric line has a very specific color scheme, so it would be easy enough to map out the results.  Some fabric stores, however, seem to only deal in certain color schemes…  double hmmmm

♦   I often wonder how much effect high fashion color trends really have on the general public….

Ok!  I’m just going to have to think more about this!

Continuing Color Conversation

I have said before that I believe color directly relates to quality of life.

A friend recently left a comment with a link to these photographs of people celebrating Holi in India.  I can’t get over how sincerely happy and excited every person looks.  Gautam says that it’s one day where everyone brings out their inner child.

I feel like people don’t “play” enough – adults don’t “play” enough.  I look at the hipsters in my neighborhood and think that it must be so fun to put together their (what I see as wacky) outfits.  I mean, torn stalkings, feathers, teased hair, too much fun!  But I’d feel ridiculous.

I’m not saying that we should throw colored powder on each other every day, or that everyone should embrace mismatched outfits…  but more should be done to get the big kids out to play.  Flash Mob has the right idea.  And there was a park by my dorm in college called the Big People’s Park with oversized playground equipment, that was good too.

Although, between Valentine’s Day public pillow fights and soap box racing, I’d say San Francisco is off to a good start.  But then again, this city has always been a bit of an adult playground hasn’t it?

To Blog or Not to Blog…

So….

a)  apparently I’m not very good at keeping a blog, considering my last post was over a month ago!  jeez!  What have I been doing???

b)  really, I’m trying to build myself a website right now…  which is tricky, mainly because I don’t know what anything means – so I end up googling EVERY step to figure out what I want/need to do.  It really slows down the process.  That, and I tend to be a weeee bit perfectionistic about some things!  (Apparently my website falls into the perfectionistic pit of my brain… it’s such a crapshoot, that pit)

Anyway, after dreaming of the perfect website for the last TWO years, last week I decided to just “go for it” and “jump in the deep end.”

Well, I haven’t gone very far.  I’ve been stuck here since Saturday:

new blog? or link to blog.... how will I decide!

Arghhh…

I decided to take some time and map out my site – to really think about how I want my site to look and work…  I decided to check out other sites and blogs to gain inspiration.  I just don’t know if I want to have a blog site, per say, or a more straight forward professional site showcasing my portfolio…  blegh.

This has meant lots of hours laying on the couch catching up on this blog and this blog, which then turns into perusing potential fabulousness here and here……

and, I haven’t figured anything out.

I think the real problem is that every time I sit down to think it all out…  which apparently, thinking out my website seems to be analogous to figuring out what I’m going to do with my life…  I just get all these ideas and thoughts and mini-dreams and it’s all just a big clusterfluck of brain activity.

And this leads me to watch mini marathons of ANYTHING (seriously, I used to have standards) on Bravo with this guy on my lap:

The Prince

And that never leads to anything productive….

Arrested Art

Speaking of graffiti…  Did you hear about Shepard Fairey’s latest arrest?  Shepard Fairey, (graffiti) artist now world famous for his red and blue Obama portrait, was arrested en route to the opening reception of his show at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art on an outstanding warrant from 2000.

Basically, the old white rich people of Boston find the public praise and attention Fairey is receiving as abominable.  His art defies their notion of what “fine art” is.  This article makes a good point in saying that Fairey’s arrest brings up two age old questions:  What is art? and, what is crime?

The early impressionists were snubbed by the Paris salons, and look at them now – I’m sure old school Bostonians would cream their pants if Manet stopped by for a photo op with their mayor.

Without art, and new generations of artists, I believe that a certain understanding of contemporary culture is lost.  Art is the greatest clue we have to the workings of past civilizations, and I believe is acts as a message in a bottle to future generations.  Not only does art in itself speak about contemporary culture, color trends, politics, but the documentation that galleries and museums write about art are later examined as historical text.

Am I saying that anyone and everyone should be allowed to paint and wallpaper public walls in the name of freedom of expression?  No, of course not.  And it is here – as I try to break down where exactly the line should be drawn – that I run into my own bias.

I am a young artist, and I sympathise with the frustration of youth who aren’t recognized beyond the streets.  But they other day I noticed an orange paint pen tag on the outside of our freshly painted apartment building, and I winced in disgust.

What is art?  What is crime?

Broken Graffiti

So I’ve been thinking about the Broken Windows Theory as applies to color…  which naturally bring me to graffiti!

LA has boasted success in reducing vandalism for showing no mercy to graffiti….  but I have a few problems with this:

1)  When talking about urban color schemes, graffiti is going to come into play.  I’m not a fan of tagging, as I find it ugly and largely unproductive.  But graffiti art is an important part of contemporary culture.  I think of graffiti as an organic way low income neighborhoods have been able to bring color into their lives.

I know in reality that graffiti CAN be gang related (but certainly isn’t ALWAYS)….  but is that a good enough reason to erase art?

I might be alone in this, I’d rather have kids play with spray paint over guns, spray paint over drugs.  And if they’re going to play with guns and drugs anyway, they might as well do something productive, like paint!

2)  My theory has been that those blocks of beige and gray that may almost resemble the original color of a building – those blocks of paint that are obviously covering graffiti – could have unrecognized effects on residents of the neighborhood.

3)  I have a MAJOR problem with the criminalization of graffiti artists.  It should not be a FELONY!  What kind of message does this send to youth?  Particularly to underprivileged youth, that expressing oneself comes at a MAJOR consequence?!  Kids take it to the street because they don’t have anywhere else to take it!  Everybody gets caught up in their own social cultures – be it all the investment types drinking at their ultra modern/pricey/elite bars or hipsters spilling onto sidewalks with cigarettes hanging between their slightly frowning lips – I don’t care who you are and what you do, but if someone is creating then there should be effort to cultivate that creativity, not to squash it.

Brandon Baunach has designed a Graffiti Report card, which I think is a pretty interesting idea….

Broken Windows

There is a sociological theory called the Broken Windows Theory.   In a nutshell – the idea is that if there is a broken window in a neighborhood – then vandals are more likely to break more windows, eventually people will break into the building, people will start squatting, litter will build, and before you know it, the building is blight to the neighborhood, neighbors start moving away, people break into the new abandoned buildings and so on…

So the idea is that if you fix the “broken windows” right away – it will le prevent vandalism and crime.

My idea is that this also relates to color.  Low income neighborhoods often don’t have the funds to regularly repaint buildings and keep up with color trends.  Cities are often unwilling to spend money in these areas and instead devote funds to beautify wealthier neighborhoods.

Do people want to live with pealing paint?  Do people like living in a dingy environment?  I don’t think so.  If you a kid isn’t proud of his home, if he doesn’t have respect for the neighborhood, he won’t hesitate to throw a rock through a window, tag a wall with spray paint, or throw his trash on the ground.

I would love to do a study of cities across the US (to start with) – documenting the aesthetics of different socioeconomic neighborhoods:  common colors, graffiti art, tags, graffiti cover-ups with mismatched paint, window bars, landscaping, public art, etc.

After my presentation at the 1/22 SF Pecha Kucha I was approached by a man interested in why I brought up the Broken Windows Theory.  (answer:  as an undergrad student I took a lot of sociology classes, and thanks to an amazing Sociologist and Professor Bill McCarthy - I took an interest in juvenile delinquency – and read about the theory in a class)  It’s one of the few ideas from my undergraduate career that I still regularly think about.  It was only a matter of time before I linked it with my idea that color directly relates to quality of life.

ANYWAY – the man who approached me is a part of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), which I had never previously heard of (but now I’m a little obsessed – and I keep looking for a San Francisco website, can anyone point me to one?).  He said that he had to go through 3 days of training and that they spent a significant amount of time talking about color.  Talk about validating!  I’m just in the beginning stages of color research – and I’m taking this as a sign that I’m on the right path.

(I’m sorry CPTED man, I don’t remember your name…  Roger?  I hope you really do email me, or maybe I’ll run into you a next month’s PK — because I want to find out more about local CPTED efforts!)

Pecha Kucha

I’m back from Hawaii – more on that later, but bigger news – I presented at Pecha Kucha last night!  I felt like my presentation was going to be a mess, but I think it went pretty well!

My theme was “Questions in Color.”  Which brings me to why I really started this blog.  To talk about color!  there is soooooooooooooooo much to say about color, and I have a billion ideas about color and about their further implications.

If I have to pick a thesis for my ideas – I’d say that color directly relates to quality of life.

Not that people who are color blind are necessarily doomed (although I would really love to look into the differences between people with “normal” color vision, and those with color vision impairments… but I’ll save that for a whole new entry) – I strongly believe that everybody perceives color differently.  Not to the extreme that some people might see through an inverted spectrum, but more subtle hue variances.  These variances may explain color preferences (or at least partially explain – there are a lot of theories out there that I’m wading through).

In the end, I think how we use color is very important and directly relates to physical AND mental health and stability.

And I plan on proving it.

Color me corny!

Right??  Allll my titles have been so cheese!  I guess I haven’t relaxed into this whole blog thing…

Hopefully I’ll be able to relax when I’m in HAWAII this weekend! Yes, I’m flying to Hawaii for boyfriend Jon’s bro’s wedding…. I’m hoping to lay in a hammock and watch sunsets similar to this.

I’m really curious as to what the wedding will be like!

will they have mini pineapples in their flowers? I love those things!

It’s going to be a whirlwind trip – just there for the wedding weekend.  I wish I could stay longer, of course, but I’m not going to complain!  I’ll still get to take a million gorgeous colorful pictures!

plus…  I love weddings.  I have so many wedding ideas sometimes I think I should really go into event planning.  Seriously, soooo many ideas!

I’ll be sure to let you know how it went when I’m back, rested, and ready to blog!

Yes I Can.

It’s a new year, we’re about to inaugurate a new president, and I was laid off…  so I’m starting a blog.

Welcome to my world!

It’s actually a great place.  Yes, I was laid off, but it’s actually working out great.  Now I have time to read, paint, sew, explore new ideas and take time to find a job I really want that complements the life I want.

This blog is going to document my journey.

Enjoy!