The Color Red
An Intimate Thing #5 (Acrylic on Canvas)
The color red. It can be interpreted in so many ways. Some might see love and romance, some might see danger, some might see death, and some might see a combination of these things. It’s a powerful color, one that shouts out, “look at me, but don’t mess with me.” It exudes confidence and strength like no other.
Interestingly enough I hated myself in red for most of my young life. My sister always looked really pretty in red, as she still does today. I both loved and envied how she wore it so well. I think it was too bold for me because I didn’t want to be seen back then; I wanted to blend in with the background.
Only recently have I embraced the rich, bold flavors of red: a bit of crimson, a touch of ruby, a sprinkle of rose to dress up my wardrobe. Perhaps now the difference is that every so often I want to stand out a bit. It’s funny how something as simple as a color can mean so much more than just a color. Even still today I only wear red on rare occasions when the mood strikes me.
As my confidence and love of red grew, I began using it sparingly in my paintings. I became a bit captivated with the contrast that it plays against neutral and cool colors like browns, grays and blues. An Intimate Thing #5 captures my newfound passion of red and all that it embraces. I’m not sure who the lady in the painting is as she came mostly from my imagination. I suppose in some way each of my female figures is a part of me; or a part of someone I aspire to be.
I love that her back faces us, and that we see just a hint of her face. She seems to subtly invite us into the painting, yet she does not want us to get too close. There is a mystery to her, a story beyond this small glimpse of her. One of the most beautiful things that I love about art is the subjectivity; we individually decide what her story is and how it relates to us.
Whether we are artists or viewers, art makes us feel, art lets us feel, and gives us an outlet to share our lives with each other in the most intimate way.