Re: virus: Re: Rationality

Tim Rhodes (proftim@speakeasy.org)
Wed, 12 Mar 1997 22:32:30 -0800 (PST)


On Tue, 11 Mar 1997 jonesr@gatwick.geco-prakla.slb.com wrote:

> If I'm allowed, I'd like to further your art analogy.
> Now if the memes are the colours, then how are the colours that you
> use on one particular peice decided upon? I don't know what kind of
> art you do, but let me use abstract modern art as the object. Does
> the piece have an overall colour scheme, where colours are decided
> upon due to what other colours are already there, or is it totally
> separated from that?

I can't speak for other artists and I'm pretty sure this analogy is moving
quickly towards the breaking point, but that being said, I usually choose a
palette of colors *before* I start the painting. Sure, sometimes
something that is happening in the painting (or while I'm painting) that
will send me back to the Big Box o' Paints, but by and large I make
decisions about overall color and tone from the get-go and work within
those self-imposed limitations. Sometimes a color will move me, possess
me and make me want to explore it, in these cases it is that one color
that sets the tone for the painting and as such influences the other colors
I choose. Other times I have a mood or a feeling I want to convey and
choose whatever colors will aid me in realization of that goal. Even if I
personally have no love of the colors themselves.

I'll let you decipher the analogy here.

- Prof. Tim