Judging The Campaigns By Their Colors: Shades Of Red And Blue

I have election fever and everything else I had intended to write is out the window. It has been an all out Red and Blue assault--everywhere the eye can see. Not Prussian or Cerulean blue, mind you, but a pure, pungent royal blue. And the red--the purest cadmium deep-- not a touch too orange or blue, the color of a bullseye, the color of blood.

These are the colors of our patriotism. Red is the color of power, passion, aggression, and war. It's the id that overpowers all colors. Blue is the color of wisdom, calm, hindsight and thoughtfulness. In this light, I love the design of the American flag. Admittedly, I'd love to update it (another post), but it captures what I view as the colors of America. Furthermore, the colors assigned of Red=Republican and Blue=Democrat, undoubtedly by some anonymous graphics editor, seem seem totally apt.

"Three Flags" Jasper Johns 24" x 16 1/2"

Artists are constantly thinking color: which ones to use and when, when to make one or two dominant, how they change next to each other. As a painter, the colors form an entire language both spatially and mood-wise--for example, warmer and darker colors push forward on a plane. Cool and lighter colors go backwards, etc. They start to become friends with frequent use and then they hang around in your palette and the studio becomes a never-ending party.

For more than a decade in the nineties I didn't own a television. Yes, I might have seen it occasionally at friend's houses, but it wasn't how I got the news. I read the paper in black and white--"Just the facts, ma'am". But the first time I saw BBC News on television I was traveling in Europe. I put my hand to my mouth in shock that its branding and backdrops were mostly bright blood red underscoring every story and interview. In my mind's eye, when I heard their cool objective accented voices on the radio I thought of blue! I wrote a letter to the president telling him it was all wrong--a terrible choice. Needless to say, they didn't change it.

Even though blue is typically considered cool and recessive, there exists a hue that has essentially no right to be considered in the blue family. The closest I could replicate it with paint would be Pthalo Blue which is so obnoxious that even a drop will overpower any painting. It's so hot it rivals red. It was synthetically created in the last century as a replacement for Prussian, a great deep blue pigment favored by Matisse, but Prussian is considered less reliable in that it changes over time. (They call pigments like this "fugitive" and I always picture the color escaping off the canvas and going into hiding.) As a painter, I try and stay away from Pthalo. That said, add a little white and you have something quite divine.

Unfortunately, TV video editors like to bathe themselves in it every morning and this makes my retinas bleed. Fox News is one of the worst offenders, given their hawkishness it's no surprise. They always use the the strongest most condescending ALL CAPS Pthalo blue and red together--their swirling graphics so spastic it more resembles a drunken peacock then a television station.

CNN, even if it can be just as hawkish, thanks to touches of Cerulean, seems tad more objective and sobering.

Barack, who never voted for the war, is the candidate for peace and his website is in various shades of blues. The blue use is respectful and doesn't talk down to us. Given the red hot passion he inspires, he's smart to counteract it with his sensible branding, although I do wonder if I can open a checking account.

Clinton, a Democrat, but slightly more hawkish. She uses a Prussian blue. Note that jacket and the blue screen behind her. It's not her fault, but once again, shame on those television editors!

Hillary Clinton's Website Homepage www.hillaryclinton.com

John McCain, who rides the "straight talk" express, uses black and white, and doesn't want too much color getting in the way. Although the effect has more in common with the consol of a late 1990s video game with the handy logo serving as crosshairs. In case we might be blind, McCain's website displays the branding not twice but three times, the ultimate sin. Bang bang! Fire the web designers!

This is in stark contrast to Mitt Romney who rivals Fox in Pthalo-abuse along side a swooshing logo which makes me want to ask the price of overnight delivery. [Since writing this column, he suspended his campaign.]

Let's not talk about Bush. I think he might be color blind. Too much red isn't good for anyone.

The election is not close to over, but this artist looks forward to seeing green and yellow and brown, yellow and turquoise again.

--

First Person Artist is a weekly column by artist Kimberly Brooks in which she provides commentary on the creative process and showcases artists' work from around the world. Come back every Saturday for more Kimberly Brooks. You can view all the columns and essays at www.firstpersonartist.com

Comments

[moderationsmuse]

Mouselion,
I looked at your blog and just see the two images. Are there just two? Perhaps you're just starting the blog.
I'm glad I said "draw." Your ideas are graphic, flat (2-d), inventive. I want to tell you something to look at that I think you'd learn from -- but I'm thinking Domenico Tiepolo and his drawings are not easy to find. The Punchinello drawings are whimisical and full of life, humor, sadness, drama.

Here's a few:

http://www.oberlin.edu/amam/images/tiepolo_giovanni_fi_001.jpg

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/h2/h2_1975.1.473.jpg

http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?57217+0+0

http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?57218+0+0

http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?74601+0+0

There's a continuous narrative of them and these are taken out of context, but they tell the story of the Punchinellos -- and these Punchinello figures have modern cousins in the Saltimbanque figures of Picasso.
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?46382+0+0

Tiepolo made his Punchinello drawings late in his career so they contain kind of an artist's life of knowledge -- wonderful costumes, texture, use of wash, line (note the striped dress the woman wears -- he has a blast with line).
There's one Punchinello drawing that it seems Picasso must almost have certainly known, so similar it is to the Saltimbanques, but I can't find that one on line.
Well, anyway, you might find them interesting.
Cheers,
Muse

[Scogostology]

This is a sentimental article that makes you pause and reflect about symbolisms of colors in our daily lives. You said that "Blue is the color of wisdom, calm, hindsight and thoughtfulness." I prefer to believe that blue is the color of "labor, business, commerce and stability". That is why we have "blue color" jobs, all the website designers use blue a lot as links in the e-commerce websites. As for wisdom, I prefer the color purple to symbolize it, while yellow symbolizes spiritual enlightenment. secret33.com/scogostology/what-is-scogostology.htm

[clumberfeet]

The country is always in a varying shade of purple.

When things are working well there are more conservative liberals.

When thing are not working well or obviously broken and in need of repair there are are more liberal conservatives.

[plutorage]

Hilary Clinton's campaign reminds me of the colorful magazines you read in the dentist's office while waiting for root canal.

[moderationsmuse]

You are not really talking about colors in a visual way. You are talking in color words. Poor vilified Phthalo blue, for instance, is not one unitary color at all. How could it be? But as with any pigment it appears in slightly subtle forms depending upon the colors surrounding it, the character of the light source and the perceptiveness of the viewer. Color is nothing more than the photons that reach your eye, there to be interpreted by your optic nerve and your mind. Photons, my friends.
I paint with Phthalo blue and with the Phthalo greens rather a lot and find them to be amazingly true and durable pigments. Depending upon the formulation they come either cool or warm from the tube (there is a Phthalo blue "red" shade that's closer to Ultramarine except for being darker). Mixed with other dark colors, Phthalo can be blended into rich darks that can contrast with either Mars or Ivory black.
I think it's unfortunate that even the art blog has to bow to politics. It demonstrates how unimportant art has become to the hipster class. Lots of people blogging over there. Hardly anyone blogging over here.
One has to discover what in art really speaks to people in genuine ways. I think in our time there's a kind of unacknowledeged hunger for real art, for that which is true to life, personal, that reveals life to us. It is contemplative and serious yet filled with delight. It's not a brand, any more than a rose is a brand, or a jonquil.
I have loved the paintings of Pierre Bonnard for a long time. It's surprising to look at them with attention to the dates. He painted things when France was split in two by World War II. Yet the paintings are filled with a timeless, enduring life. They are not "about" the war. They are not "about" anything so transient as political change. Instead they are about food, the bath, an open window, the outdoors coming indoors. They are about a dachshund lying in a chair, the artist's faithful companion.

[ImaRascal]

Want more political color? Then how could you miss the lemon-yellow w/black bars power pantsuit Mrs. Clinton has been wearing lately!
If that color was worn by ANY other candidate they would be labeled as a pimp in a zootsuit.
As it looks on Hillary Rodham, well lets just say she looks like she is selling real estate or handing out cosmetic samples in a department store.

[TommyMcCarthy]

Fascinating piece.....
I've spent a career first applicating, and now specifying color in design & construction.

I now have a name for a color even more offensive than red......"Pthalo"
(I've been referring to it as "that awful electric blue s**t you see on Fox")

Ms. Brooks just made my "favorites" list...................................tm

[Rule Of Law]

The only other people who pay this much attention to the colors Red and Blue are the Crips and the Bloods and the Nortenos and Surenos. is it any coincidence--a gang is a gang is a gang...

[avenue]

I've said it once, and i'll say it again: the Obama logo is awesome. Obama supporters and the contrary, I have a lot of graphic artist friends who love it. Who's his graphic artist?