Light & Shade, Sound & Color
Jim Carrey, The Devil Wears Prada, and a Solo Date at the Met!
My nails are muddy with cyan, violet, yellow-green, magenta.
Have you seen the Jim Carrey short I Needed Color? I stumbled across it the other night and felt deeply- and surprisingly- moved.
The short film shows Carrey painting in his New York City studio. Even through his focused determination and deadly seriousness, the comedian untethers his soul and projects it out into the canvas with the same fervor he seems to harness on screen. He’s steady, yet wild, splotching huge globs of paint out in organized rows, delirious with measured abandon. The dichotomy of his painting style is fascinating to watch, and his finished works contain all of the furious freedom and careful planning we see him hurl into them.
“I found myself looking around at one point, a real bleak winter in New York and it was so depressing and I think I needed color.” -Jim Carrey
Carrey describes coming to painting out of desperation, a foothold on the icy slope that forms around a broken heart.
I see a broken heart as a deep, dark blue violet. It’s low, too calm, spilling out with too much saturation and not enough all at once. Cold, dark, heavy, bruised. Not easily lifted. But through color theory we can be sure, when mixed with enough sunny, pure yellow, red is restored. Fiery, alive.
Color is inherently emotional. It controls our responses, which become our moods, our feelings. Even if you proclaim yourself immune to color theory, unaware of the difference between magenta and pink, you are affected by color.
Remember that iconic scene from “The Devil Wears Prada” where Miranda explains the depth of fashion to Andy in a cutting tirade about the unworthiness of her cerulean sweater?
"You think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select, I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean". -Miranda Priestly
As Nigel would say, “you live your life in it.” He was referring to fashion, but I think the same sentiment applies to color on an even deeper level.
Nature, advertising, food, and sure, fashion. Everything in and of the world carries color and with that, expression. The two cannot be seen separately. And what a powerful pair!
It’s been tedious and fulfilling to learn about all of the many ways color affects us, and I’ve still got so much to learn.
Remember last week when I said I’m feeling over formula?
Wielding color is a power that requires a bit of both. The creation of color is scientific, mathematic…color pairing could be boiled down to a recipe. But when it comes to color selection, emotions announce themselves unapologetically. Color affects us on a biological level, it filters through us, forms our environment, leaves an impression on our cells.
Color controls us, whether we like it or not. Luckily, I do…
Last Friday night, I took myself on a solo date to the Met.
I cued up a nostalgic playlist and breezed through sparse crowds up to the rooftop garden. There, I sucked down a large glass of $17 cabernet and subtly studied groups of museum-goers as they paced before a panoramic city skyline.
One friend in a group of three shifted nervously, her weight never settling on one foot or the other. Her friends both wore kitten heels, the one in the printed silk skirt quietly radiating Queen Bee.
A German family shared one tiny prepackaged bag of chocolate dipped pretzels, taking turns dipping fingertips into crinkling plastic and smacking their lips.
Inside, I wandered ornate halls, visiting paintings like old friends and lingering on some I hadn’t noticed before. Hours of mixing stubborn gouache in my shoebox across the park had given me an even greater appreciation for the nuance and power of color.
There is power in nuance.
Detail, subtlety, precision, delicacy. Even in the freest forms of impressionism, there is intention. There is care.
Much like science itself…details, observations, nuance, care, and power.
I think my favorite types of art are the ones that require precision to allow for abandon. Hone your technique at the barre, work every detail in rehearsal, escape on stage. Mix flecks of paint until you reveal the colors you need, let them fly on the paper.
This duality in the ability to adhere to nuance and surrender to expression is where the greatest art lives. Go find it.
WHAT I’M GETTING UP TO AND INTO:
The other night I made Alison Roman’s Pot of Pasta With Broccoli Rabe & Chorizo Bread Crumbs for the first time and C said it was one of the best things I’ve ever made. Hearty, comforting, perfect fall recipe. (Tip: make extra breadcrumbs and scatter them on everything for the next week)
Snagged an incredible 1980s Jean Paul Gautier jacket at the Grand Bazaar and I can’t wait to feel like the coolest version of myself all fall!
In Providence, we pulled the lemon tree back inside for the season and she’s TALL. Love the way she fills up the space- reminder to play with proportions in your interior design. Sometimes a bigger piece of furniture or art actually makes your space feel larger…
Another reminder- autumn is very much here, and there are only a few more weeks to sit outside at restaurants! (sidenote- remember when we were sitting outside in full winter gear during Covid, just to feel something?)
Okay, this is *not sponsored* but I swear AG1 makes a huge difference in my hormonal health. It contains every vitamin I’m always deficient in- magnesium, D, B, C- plus a few servings of veggies. I’m sharing because with all of our traveling from one city to another, I haven’t been drinking it for a few months, and I genuinely notice the difference- especially in how much my hair sheds when I skip it!
We’ve started planning for our annual Halloween party, and this year I really want to elevate our indoor decorations. (image via Pinterest) Has anyone tried the floating candles trick?!
CAM’S REC REC OF THE WEEK:
Sound & Color, by Alabama Shakes
It's incredibly easy to forget how much technique is needed to create. A painter and a dancer need technical skill. A writer needs grammar and a knowledge of when to be clear and when to be obscure. It's only with technique that the creative spirit can be all it can be.