Color Persona
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In November 2019 I spent a month as a guest artist-in-residence at Lichtenberg Studios in Berlin, Germany. The live/work space was located in a building connected to a small museum in the district of Lichtenberg. As a guest artist, one was asked to do an outward facing public project within the district. As worded by the German translator, this type of project is called an Intervention.
Throughout my career I have always relied upon a myriad of colors, however, I’ve long had a strong interest in the symbolic nature of the colors of skin.
This interest was both catalyzed and bolstered by the two day jobs I worked alongside my art. The first was at MTV Animation while working as the head colorist on the animated film, Beavis and Butthead Do America and Daria, an animated television program. MTV had previously determined five colors which denoted racial difference; I was always curious about them, as by necessity, skin color for the Daria needed to be pared down to five colors. After this day job, I became the Senior Color Designer for a New York City fashion brand and spent thirteen years in this role. My role was responsible for designing their women’s clothing color palette; as such I spent countless hours understanding the relationship of color with trend and style. This research was thought-provoking and led me to see the hidden meanings behind a variety of fashion styles and colors as well as how they could be imbued into the public’s psyche. I found that current events and politics were major influences on fashion as well on color palettes. It often seemed that the most iconic trends originated on the streets and amongst “the people”. Some years ago at my color designer job, I saw that the swelling wave of awareness of racial diversity and concern for “rights” would directly impact the choices which designers would use in their clothing lines. I predicted that skin-toned color palettes would become a major fashion trend (which ended up as an extremely accurate prediction). I was and continue to be intrigued that the tones relating to skin coloring offer an array of subtle colors, all affected by the type of melanin/genetics in play.
With that in mind during my residency in Berlin, and needing to forma plan for a street based art project, I made mental notes of the various skin colors I saw as I walked throughout the the district of my stay at Lichtenberg Studios. Back in the studio, I decided that I would replicate each of these colors that I had noticed. I then created 25 pieces comprised of acrylic paint on archival watercolor paper (30” x 22”). These pieces were then posted throughout the city with the public space being used to create a dialogue within the local population. The selected skin colors utilized, demonstrate that varieties of color color exist on our bodies’ exteriors, while the body’s interior colors (the colors of organs, skin, and blood) never vary.