“The Anthropology of Turquoise”, Ellen Meloy, pp. 3-17
Ellen Meloy’s brilliantly written book, “The Anthropology of Turquoise” begins as an eloquently illustrated narrative, one of the reasons, I assume, it is ‘Los Angleles Times Best Book of the Year’. A key quote reads, “You would think that these rich colors reside in the thing itself, that the cactus, the crayons the lichen have their colors. But colors are not possessions; they are the intimate revelations of an energy field.” Colors are reflections, as you know, the interesting part is how evolution plays a role. Color vision is survival of the fittest, it is a developing sense, it is fun to imagine that it will continue to develop.
In my own creation process I can apply the reference to Ezra Pounds, a critic of the modernist movement, when Meloy claims his advice to artists is to make the world strange. Although I could not find more information on his advice on Google I will continue to search. Strange relates to emotive qualities that Meloy is also interested in exploring. I imagine she fancies the work of Rothko, as the painter explores emotions evoked by colors rather than the interactions of colors.
This excerpt contains a fresh view on color and is a wonderfully inspiring read. From now on I understand the use of color is an important responsibility and thoughtful use can evoke emotions and involve stories.
Ellen Meloy’s brilliantly written book, “The Anthropology of Turquoise” begins as an eloquently illustrated narrative, one of the reasons, I assume, it is ‘Los Angleles Times Best Book of the Year’. A key quote reads, “You would think that these rich colors reside in the thing itself, that the cactus, the crayons the lichen have their colors. But colors are not possessions; they are the intimate revelations of an energy field.” Colors are reflections, as you know, the interesting part is how evolution plays a role. Color vision is survival of the fittest, it is a developing sense, it is fun to imagine that it will continue to develop.
In my own creation process I can apply the reference to Ezra Pounds, a critic of the modernist movement, when Meloy claims his advice to artists is to make the world strange. Although I could not find more information on his advice on Google I will continue to search. Strange relates to emotive qualities that Meloy is also interested in exploring. I imagine she fancies the work of Rothko, as the painter explores emotions evoked by colors rather than the interactions of colors.
This excerpt contains a fresh view on color and is a wonderfully inspiring read. From now on I understand the use of color is an important responsibility and thoughtful use can evoke emotions and involve stories.
I really like the idea that you mention about making things strange because I think that if you strive to make things strange it will catch peoples attention and hold it. I also really enjoyed that you mentioned Rothko, I went and looked up his work and it is really interesting and relevant to this project. His work reminds me a lot of Gerhard Richters who has great documentary floating around but its kind of dry
ReplyDeleteI think you had a really interesting interpretation of the reading and applied it to your own work very well. I like your point that color is "survival of the fittest"... I hadn't thought about it like that before.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading your response Emily, my favorite part is when you reflect on Meloy's quote that "colors are not posessions, they are the intimate revelations of an energy field" It's so true, when we build our forms out of clay and then assign them colors after they've already claimed their space in the world....they seem like posessions of the form. In the color building project we just did I started to reverse this pattern of building. It's fun and interesting to think of the color being the form instead of being "posessed" by it.....new concepts bring about new, fresh works of art.
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