If you look at my little bio blurb (and don’t worry if you didn’t-I am just thrilled you are here!), you will see I give myself a challenge every year dealing with some technical/aesthetic issue.
A couple of years ago with was compete vs. nuture for an artist.
This year it is tone vs. color, which is more important?
file image-not me ;)
Hmmmmm.....?
(I know, I need to stop with the confrontational stuff, don’t I?) Anyway I think I found the answer to this year’s question is about the same as that other one from a few years back....
not me either, just another ...file image
EUREKA!!
Neither is more important!
can’t (or perhaps in my case) don’t want to, have one without the other.
They both need each other!
Even if I only work in color or only black and white. I have to
1. consider the value scale and its ability to create illusionary space
2. then and only then consider the emotional impact color (or lack thereof) will have on both the artist and the viewer.
Put another way (because I love my analogies)...
file image
It’s a dead man’s party
(with apologizes to Oingo Bingo)
Tone (value, great scale-however you call it) is like the skeleton of the work, color is the muscle and skin, then the artist’s concept is the clothing and jewelry.
Atlas Exposed file image
In conversation, most of us do not think of the skeleton of the person when we meet and chat with them. Usually we notice the way they are dressed and what they have to say (aka concept). But and here is the important part, if there skeleton, muscles and skin were not in place functioning properly, the clothing and the jewelry would not matter. The dysfunction may overshadow the clothing or jewelry.
In other words I think it should go-
1. tone
2. color
In other words I think it should go-
1. tone
2. color
NEW JOB, NO TIME TO POST
So that is why this post is just in time! I am filling in for a friend this semester. I am teaching some of her classes at Longwood University. One class is close to my heart, Integrating Art into the General Curriculum, something I have been doing since before my students have been born! The other is a studio class where you can bet I will be thrilling them with the above new revelation of mine.
See you in 2018!
