Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Another Day at the Zoo

Once upon a time there was golden orange haired Golden Lion Tamarin, named Zoe. She lived in the greenest part of DC, the Smithsonian Zoo. She was stuck behind clear glass, which was okay though because she rarely had to work hard. Everyday she was fed fresh white bananas. The yellow peel was always already removed. This was done by the red head volunteer. All day she laid in the jungle green trees. Once in a while, she traveled down near the aqua clean pond.

This of course was until last Sunday, when all the children were dressed in the pale rainbow of nice dress clothes because it was Easter. It was the typical lazy Sunday, until Jake the coral corn snake snuck into Zoe's cage. Zoe had heard about Jake from the mousey gray ferret (who claimed all pinkish and orangish objects were poisonous), but she had never personally met Jake. At first Zoe was scared and hid in her brown house high in the trees. Jake slithered around on the green mossy floor until Zoe peeked out. She was at first frightened back into her home when she was Jake hissing with his pink tongue. Then Zoe re-emerged from behind the brownish wooden door and called out to Jake asking why he was here. Jake told Zoe "I followed a royal blue butterfly out of the reptile house and he led me here."

He continued to tell Zoe for the next half hour about his journey over the black tar that lead him to the small mammal house. Zoe eventually joined Jake on the green grassy floor, intrigued by his story. No longer was Zoe afraid of this orange and pinkish animal. Jake sooon slid back into the black hole in the corner and left after establishing Zoe and himself were friends. Life returned back to routine, but the next day when the volunteer fed Zoe an orange tangerine, she no longer backed away in fear, and instead was anxious to try something new.

Friday, March 14, 2008

The Lion

I guess I would have to feel even worse for the lion though. He doesn't see his prey (the zebra) as well because he is color blind, or only sees in black and white and gray. Could you imagine a life with out color? It would contradict all the concepts I had discussed in earlier blogs about color being used to help in symbolism or to evoke emotion. Our world revolves and depends on color.
As a film photographer I often deal with seeing the world in black and white. I have to predict what my world would look like in different tones when it meets the negative. Everyday I deal with a world of black and white and grays and I love it, but I can't always stay with it. Sometimes I need to bust out a color roll. I need color to help produce my images. But what if I never had that choice. I was always stuck in black and white? How would I approach my world then? Honestly I do not even know. I would probably just get frustrated like the lion who can't find his prey because of a handicap he was given that no one else had to deal with. I guess though, I would never have the ability to understand what it would be like and could not even imagine it because in the end our world depends on color whether we like it or not.

The Zebra

(http://www.african-safari-pictures.com)

Imagine the life of the Zebra. So plain, so dull. Always black and white. No variety. Not even a shade of gray. I've always hated gray to an extent. I mean I do like blakc and white photography, which is filled with gray, but in clothes or towels or sheets, I have found in to be quite boring. Recently though, I have learned that gray is so much more than just black and white. It is blue and orange or red and green, who knew that gray was actually the most exciting color of them all because it contained all the colors. As I type this though, it almost appears as a metaphor. I guess I am exagerating when I say gray is the most exciting just because it contained all of our favorite colors in to one. So does this mean that when all good things come together it becomes bland? Perhaps we need to bring one good thing to many bad things just so it can stand out.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

The Changing Sun

When you look out the window. Typically you see the same scene between the hours of 8 and 6. A sun and some clouds. Common, somewhat predictable. But with the simple action of even just looking through a window, often we are able to predict the weather. Grayish equals possibility of rain. Bluish equals a bright sunny typically good weathered day. Okay. Then there is the movies. Here a typical cloud and sun scene can depending on a certain color, help create the mood of the events about to take place. I guess this relates back to my previous blog about the common associations we have with colors.
Linnie, Esther, and I decided for our projects to play with this common scenario of a sun and clouds. We used this as our image and to mix the colors up for our project. Portrayed on a chocolate with frosting for a different play of mediums, we created different colors for each group of images (analogous, monochromatic, and complementary). We found this to be interesting because the common scenes can be easily changed depending on certain color selections. While we found frosting to be a difficult medium to work with, in the end we felt like we had achieved our goal by creating a new mood just depending on the color choice for certain objects.

Patriotic

I don't consider myselg anti-American. I never have. Even if I do say I want to leave this country as soon as possible, I would not say I hate my country. I do however hate the colors red, white, and blue. For some time now, I have found myself steering away from anything associated with the color combination- shoes bags, shirts, sheets, towels, even underwear. I find wearing your favorite colors for a team, school, or country to be unnecessary unless you are going to a special event. Showing your spirit through colors may be necessary at this time because people may understand it, but for daily use, no one does. You just look lame. Excuse me for my 4th grade vocabulary, but a better word choice does not come to mind at the moment. They make shirts and hats for spirit. No need for just random colors. Perhaps I'm being to harsh. Perhaps I'm being to narrow minded. Perhaps I just don't understand. Either way, you won't ever see me wearing my country's, schools, or team's colors.

(Thanks to http://picasaweb.google.com/bglove10/WhatIVeBeenUpToThePastMonth/photo#5093336919104594706)

Colors as symbols

Red sun at morning, sailors taking warning. Red sun at night sailor’s delight. Bizarre. I’m not going to sit here and pretend I have ever understood, and it rarely is true.

Yellow rubber ducky. I don’t honestly think I have ever seen a yellow duck, but maybe the ducklings are yellow?

Blue water. However, when it is glass I don’t see any color. It’s clear.

Purple grapes. In the grocery store there more red and green though.

Red head. Mostly red heads hair is orange though.

Girls pink. Boys blue. There really only some bland skin tone though.

Colors are something we all know and understand. They are common symbols for ideas, emotions, objects. Whether they make sense or not does not matter. Our society has taught us to know and agree that these colors are logically in the objects they represent. Regardless of what colors evoke in a person personally, most likely we have been taught to associate these colors with these ideas and feelings.

And I would like to end with a scary color. Rainbows have pots of gold. I only ever found bad luck is at the end of rainbows though.