Post Critique

After my critique of my final project, I feel really good about my paintings. I think everyone liked them, and they really illustrated my point well. I was nervous at first, so I brought my paintings into another class the day before for a practice critique. The students had no idea what the basis of the project was, or the assignment, so I asked them "If you had to guess, what do you think the point of these paintings are?" The responses I got were perfect. All of them hit on something along the lines of destruction of the environment and the world. This boosted my confidence a lot for the real critique and just my thoughts in general about the piece. I think I had been staring at it for so long, that the chipping paint all started to look the same, and I was afraid that it would become boring. In the end, I think it was all in my head, and I'm really happy with the result.

Nail Polish

A friend of mine pointed out to me today the random names the nail polish company "OPI" comes up with. Just browsing through them, I was immediately intrigued to see what color went with a few of these names. Some of them are self explanatory, such as "St. Petersburgundy," "Alpine Snow," or "Holy Pink Pagoda!" But in general, I have absolutely no clue what colors come with most of the names. A few examples are "Hoodoo voodoo?" "Suzi Says Da!" "Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ," "Don't Socra-tease Me," and "My Chihuaua Bites!". So, I decided to conduct a little experiment. I asked Nic and Niya to guess what color they would expect the nail polish to be, just hearing the name, to see if they were close.

"Hoodoo Voodoo?"
Nic: earthy browns
Niya: off white
Sarah: dark orange
Actual: hot pink


"My Chiuahua Bites!"
Nic: Yellow
Niya: Green
Sarah: Red
Actual: Bright Red


"Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ"
Nic: Red
Niya: Brown
Sarah: Dark Red/Brown
Actual: Pinkish/Burgundy


"Suzi Says Da!"
Nic: light pink
Niya: yellow
Sarah: hot pink
Actual: dark brownish red


"Don't Socra-tease Me!"
Nic: Green
Niya: Light blue
Sarah: Dark Red
Actual: Bright red


"Boris & Natasha"
Nic: gold
Niya: dark green
Sarah: dark red
Actual: rose/burgundy


"Skinny Dip'n Lake Michg'n"
Nic: dark blue
Niya: dark blue
Sarah: dark blue
Actual: flesh tone

Final Project

I had trouble at first thinking of a topic or thesis for my final project. Living in the city has definitely opened my eyes to how much people trash the environment. Whether it's working in large factories that give off toxins or littering the streets with garbage, even driving unnecessarily large cars that pollute the air, all of these actions contribute to the destruction of our world. I decided to use the deterioration of the environment as a topic for my final painting. I would start out with a true to life painting of the beautiful blues and greens of the world, but cover most of it with grays. This represents the smog and pollution, and the lack of vibrance in the world. With research, I discovered that areas such as New York, Los Angeles, Japan, and some spots in China and Europe produce a very large part of the pollution today. In my painting, these are the only parts where the color will show through, reminding these areas in the world of what they could look like if they cut down on environmental destruction. Lastly, the grays of the world on top will appear as if the paint is flaking or chipping off. This is just to reiterate the fact that the environment is deteriorating. Overall, I feel that this will be a fairly strong piece, and I'm excited for it.

Colors and Tones In Painting

I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine about how differently fine artists, or people with drawing and painting backgrounds, look at color. For example, if I were to paint a realistic portrait of someone, there would possibly be tones of blue, green, red, etc in his or her skin. You have to concentrate more on what you see than what you know: on the exact color of what you're painting, not the object. Everyone is taught in elementary school that skin is a peach color, and for the majority, that is correct. But, when you look closer, that skin most likely has shades of completely opposite colors that you would never guess would look right.

Skin is just an example of looking at things differently. It happens with everything. If you were to paint someone's red shirt, it wouldn't be plain, solid red. It would have other tones such as pinks or greens or browns. A lot of times, this way of thinking/seeing is what makes painting so difficult. You almost have to train yourself to see things differently, and it takes a lot of practice.

Color Therapy

Color is made from different wavelengths of light, which are absorbed and reflected in various forms. It has an affect on everything in life. It is often used to improve our health, in different ways than traditional modern medicine. This is known as color therapy.

The interaction between color and certain parts of the body is what makes color therapy successful. There is a "resonant interaction of zones" of the hands and feet (chakras energy points) to a similar frequency of color source. Used correctly, together, will make a certain harmony and will have different effects on different parts of the body. We can "tune" our bodies for the best wellness by exposing our chakras to the corresponding color wave.

"The color scale promotes restoration of the energy balance broken by illness. Different colors give off different wavelength frequencies and these different frequencies have different effects on physical and psychological functions and consequently different disorders. "

Color therapy does not alter the physical makeup of the body, but it can strengthen systems and emotions. The process of color therapy is using a ray of light (similar to a pen light) and exposing them to certain acupuncture points of the body. Different colors have different effects, which are channeled throughout the body.

RED: stimulates brain activity and sexual glands, increases heart rate, and blood pressure.

ORANGE: gives off energy while stimulating appetite.

YELLOW: energizes, relieves depression, and helps with memory.

GREEN: helps sooth the nervous system, relaxes from depression, anxiety, and nervousness. Green stimulates growth, therefore it should not be used on tumors and cancers.

BLUE: helps calm and sooth respiratory illnesses or throat infections.

VIOLET: strengthens and awakens, suppresses appetite, improves immunity and arthritis.

Random Color Facts

The dark brown and black spots on a banana's skin are not necessarily a sign of over ripeness or rotting. They are most likely sunburn spots due to long exposure to ultraviolet rays while growing.

Source: http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/banana.html

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A turkey has several flaps of loose skin around the head and neck that turn color depending on its mood. The flaps are called the "wattle" (on the chin), the "snood" (on the head and over the beak) and the "caruncle" (on the throat). Under calm conditions, these areas are pinkish-gray or blue; if the turkey is annoyed or mating, all these areas turn bright red

Source: http://www.contracostatimes.com/

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Favorite Toothbrush Color:

Blue is America's first choice for toothbrushes. Romantic lilac is the surprise runner-up.

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A little tropical fish that glows fluorescent red will be the first genetically engineered pet. A Texas-based biotech company unveiled plans to market the GloFish a tropical zebra fish infused with the gene of a sea anemone that makes it glow fluorescent red, causing a debate about the enviromental risk.

Source: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=17

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Redheads need more painkillers!

A University of Washington study reported that compared to other hair colors, natural redheads are more susceptible to pain and need more anesthesia when they go into surgery. Scientists explained that redheads have a "defective receptor" for melanin (a pigment responsible for tanning). This same receptor reacts with another receptor on brain cells that influence pain sensitivity.

Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2923

Color blindness is the "inability to distinguish the differences between certain colors." This happens when there is an absence of color-sensitive pigment in the retina. Usually, this condition is inherited and is there at birth. About one out of every twelve men and one of every twenty women are color blind.

Most often, color blindness is when a person has trouble seeing reds, greens, blues, or a mixture of these colors. The most common type is red-green color blindness, where the person sees reds and greens as the same shade.

Here is an example of what they see:




The typical test for color blindness is based on a person's ability to see numbers inside of a circle.




Answers:
Test 1- 74
Test 2- 29
Test 3- 6
Test 4- Those with normal color vision shouldn't be able to see any number. Most people with red-green color blindness should be able to read a 5.