Category: Color / Light / Perception

Black is Beautiful! Part 2

7/4/2022

Black vs Purple
As a professional artist and muralist,
I have developed a deep appreciation for the power and significance of Color.
For instance, Purple really is the most appropriate color to attribute to my Beloved Susan’s Memorial Bench, as anyone who knew her will rightly attest to!

Purple is the Royal color, and the color of Dignity,
and the color of Joy, and of Compassion,
and of Exuberance!
and... of Non-Conformity.
and
Purple is Playful! and Fun!
(and it reminds me of her Raucous Laughter!)
However...
I am beginning to realize, after many enlightening and insightful conversations with the persuasive
Superintendent of Parks, Recreation, and Community Services for the City of Pasadena,
that the color Black is not without its more positive attributes especially for a Memorial!
In addition to being the appropriate color of mourning…
Black is, after all, Beautiful!
Black represents Strength, and Courage and Justice!
Black, in all of its Elegance represents
both Defiance and Conviction!
And being the color of printers’ ink,
typewriter-ribbons, marker-pens, and pencils…
Black stands for Communication! and for
Speaking Truth to Power!
All of which Susan would be very proud to embrace in her Memorial, as she did in her life.
And so...
in the spirit of Community Values and Cooperation
(and of choosing one’s battles wisely)…
and realizing that there are many, many other
more important causes to stand for...

Such as calling out social injustice,
as when she sought to protect the informational privacy
of her JPL co-workers against intrusive
Homeland Security badging and privacy issues in 2007,
when she was instrumental in helping to instigate a lawsuit against the Federal Government.
(The lawsuit went all the way to the
United States Supreme Court!)
Or...
Her involvement and work in giving voice to the concerns of Human Trafficking Victims!
or Her concerns over the unfair over-representation and incarceration of black and brown men
and women in our penal system…
and while She was certainly not pro-abortion,
She was deeply concerned about the invasive tendencies
of our government, and our society, to legislate away
the rights of women to have dominion over their own bodies, and the same for gays and lesbians,
and all the LGBTQ! …
or her conviction that it should not be a
Death Sentence to drive while black…
or to be shot in the back for a petty crime…
and that, while guns are indeed inanimate objects...
flooding our streets with human slaughtering
weapons of mass distraction is not making our children and our public spaces any safer!
And that, indeed, Black Lives,
Just as All Lives,
really do matter!
"So with that said… I don’t think that Susan would want her Memorial tarnished by a silly little battle over mindless and insensitive bureaucratic rules in support of conformity and the stifling of creativity and free expression.

   I think we should name Susan’s new
Memorial Bench
(which has been returned to the park)

“The Susan Foster black ‘Lives Matter’ Memorial Bench!”

(It’s the Mexican Muralist in me!)
-Roberto Quintana de Foster

2 Comments

Black is Beautiful! Part 1

6/6/2022

2 Comments

John Singer Sargent:
Charcoal portrait sketch of Kenneth Grahame

One of the many topics that I am looking forward to exploring here on my new Blog is: Color and Color theory! This is such a wide ranging topic… it is hard to know where to start! But we’ll have many opportunities for interesting posts. So let’s start with probably the oldest and widest used color of all, Black!

Mark Rothko (1903-1970) ‘Black’

Most People don’t consider Black a color 'Black is the absence of color!’ they say. But not me! As a painter, I see black as another rich and varied pigment. It can be created by mixing at least three of the darker (transparent) primary-color pigments, or even just two of the darker secondary-color pigments. Black is essential for creating ALL of the Shade colors (by definition), and along with White it makes up the most versatile and constructive color of all the color families: The family of Grays… and all of the Toned colors as well! Not just a mixture, It’s also a pure pigment! And several kinds of pigments as well, with a wide range of useful qualities.

Pablo Picasso, Guernica 1937

“Picasso’s choice of black and white for his painting intensified
the drama of it, giving the painting a picture-like quality
as if it were part of a photographic record. It also highlights the essence of war being evil, reducing life around it into
dichotomous composites of good and evil.”

Ivory Black is the most popular Black, originally made by burning ivory, now by carbonizing bone (versatile but it has a weak tinting strength). Lampblack (good for making grays as it shifts towards the bluish/purple) and Carbon Black, made from the soot of charring petroleum, (not so good for mixing but very dark and permanent as a body-color over larger areas). Vine Black is made of carbon by charring vegetable or wood products. Carbon pigments make weak mixtures but are good for outlining and the sticks are good for drawing, and in its powdered dust form it is very fine and light, good as a pounce for transferring cartoon patterns for signs, murals and fresco paintings. Mars Black is an iron oxide, so it leans toward the red, not a very rich or dark black, but it mixes well with transparent colors and doesn’t ‘Go to mud’ so easily as the carbons do. Payne’s Gray is a particularly rich mixture of Black with Ultramarine and a little ochre (good to know when it shifts all of your mixtures towards green). Black primers are very useful as a block-out layer and black gesso makes a great ground for darker compositions or to make your opaque colors ‘pop’!

The Black Paintings: Frank Stella (American, born 1936)

Photo: Hollis Frampton,
The Secret World of Frank Stella
[painting Getty Tomb,
unpublished print], 1958–1962,
printed 1991, gelatin silver print,
Addison Gallery of Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
(gift of Marion Faller, Addison Art Drive, 1991)

Parisian bad-man FUZI, paints a mural on the side of
Boomtown Brewery in sunny Los Angeles, California
He covered the wall with a host of characters
in his trademark style.
https://ironlak.com/fuzi-paints-large-ignorant-mural-dtla/

...And of course Black Enamel ‘Rattlers’ make great
‘Paint Bombs’ for quick attacks over rough surfaces
and hard to reach Trophies.

Coming soon...

Black is Beautiful! Part 2:
Black vs Purple

Black is Beautiful! Part 3:
Black as the absence of Light,
Black-Body Radiation, Black-Lights,
Black Holes, Anti-Photons,
Black Matter, Black Energy

2 Comments

Gratitude, a PurpleBench, and Thou...

5/12/2022

12 Comments

   As most all of you know… I’ve been hiding out for more than a year now, since the passing of my beloved Susan.
I am finally starting to process the many stages of grief and depression, and with the help of the ‘Flow of Time’ (Rhea and Kronos) I am beginning to emerge from my isolation and to re-engage with the world as it is. Your love and understanding has been very helpful, and I appreciate all of you very much.
It was very sad to have to forego a memorial service for our beloved Susan, due to the dreaded covid, but having a virtual memorial on-line has been very healing. I hope to post more photos there in the near future.
You can find her ‘MyKeeper Memorial’ here at this link if you would like to read and share what others have posted:

https://www.mykeeper.com/profile/SusanFoster/

   One of the most helpful things I have discovered to be very helpful for me to heal through my terrible loss, has been to try and embrace the sadness and grief, and to transform it all into Gratitude. Gratitude for having been loved by our wonderful Susan, and for having had such a loving and compassionate soul to share this miraculous gift of life with, and Gratitude for all the beautiful people and relationships that she has brought into my life! (Most all of you folks!)
   So with that in mind… I have arranged for a beautiful Memorial Bench to be installed at our local park, here in our neighborhood, that Susan helped to found back in the early 80’s. McDonald Park is located on Mountain and Mar Vista, between Hill and Lake Avenue. Susan was deservedly proud of her role in establishing Pasadena's McDonald Park in 1982, a lovely five-acre space in the heart of our city's famous Bungalow Heaven. Featuring a children's play area, a softball diamond, handball courts, picnic facilities, and more.
Since its founding, McDonald Park has brought pleasure to countless Angelenos -- making it a fitting legacy.
And now there is a beautiful new Purple Memorial Bench dedicated to her there, in the north-east corner, behind the baseball backstop, with her name on it! You can’t miss it!
It’s her favorite color: Plum-Crazy Purple!
A fitting legacy indeed.

More Gratitude!

As with most projects, Susan’s Memorial Bench Monument involved several phases, and there are many people to thank for their generosity and expertise. First of all of course are all the folks over at The City of Pasadena Parks, Recreation and Community Services. The Installation Crew: Park Supervisor Carl Jones and assistant Danny who not only laid the concrete pad(s) in the park but also picked up Susan’s Memorial from my home and studio, transported it to the park, and expertly installed the Memorial. Thanks Guys, you did a great job!
I would especially like to give a huge Shout-Out to the Parks Program Coordinator, Jason Vega. This project would not have happened without Mr. Vega’s help and guidance! He assisted me every step of the way, shepherding me through the entire process. From supplying me with the Public Monument Policy and all the documents necessary to put together the proposal application to be submitted to the Recreation and Parks Commission for the creation and installation of this Memorial Bench Monument (of less than city-wide significance), including the preliminary internal review, to actually submitting the proposal on my behalf to the Commission and receiving a unanimous approval from the board! Very impressive!
Thank You Jason!
Last, but certainly not least, I am very grateful to my good friend and neighbor Peter Koroghlian over at Innovative Designs and Manufacturing Inc., in Azusa.
www.idmifurnishings.com
Peter was a great admirer, and a dear friend, of our Beloved Susan! When Peter heard of my plans for Susan’s Memorial Monument, he graciously and generously offered to donate the bench! Peter had the bench prepped and painted, installed the plaque, and delivered the bench to my studio!
Peter, What a Guy! … You-Really-Are-The-Man!
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

12 Comments

...to Roberto's Blog!

  "Duit-On-Mon-Dai"

  Roberto has been pestering the ‘Marketing’ staff here at Art and Soul for some time now to get together with ‘Research and Development’ to come up with a fun way for him to share all the great work out there of all the many other talented muralists and artists he's been "influenced by" over the years. ‘Sales’ was totally against the idea! ("How could that possibly improve the bottom-line?!"). ‘Marketing’ remains split, as usual ("We need more data"). ‘R&D’ thought it might be a fun way to "show off a little", and to showcase all those great ideas they keep finding out there on the internet. ‘HR’ said it might be a good way to keep 'The Crew' distracted ("Since they are all so bored since Covid hit, and Roberto is spending more and more time in his studio working on all those silly little easel paintings").
'The Crew' said: ’'Sure, We've got nothing else going on …but only if we get to share stuff about technique, materials, and equipment." ‘Receivables’ said: "It obviously won’t make more work for us, so why not!". 'Legal' said: "No Way! You are NOT going to reveal where you steal all your ideas from!" (Although Roberto values their legal advice, He rarely listen’s to their hysterics anyway). So... here we are! Welcome to Roberto’s new blog:
  "Duit-On-Mon-Dai"
     "As the title implies, I will post once a week (on Monday, more or less). Feel free to leave a family friendly comment. Dialogue and praise is encouraged. Creativity, passion and wonder should be expected. Politics and personal grievances hopefully kept to private emails. And please… no Whining! and no sales pitches either (you can make your own damn blog for that).
   I expect to start becoming a little more savvy with all this social media stuff, but for now ‘Bookmark’ my website and check back every once in a while. I hope you will find it interesting. Don’t be too persnickety over my whimsical spelling and creative punctuations either, my Editorial Department is not what it used to be… I am seriously understaffed these days."
Peace and Love...
-Roberto Quintana, WFA

Black is Beautiful! Part 2

Black is Beautiful! Part 1

Gratitude, a PurpleBench, and Thou...

More Gratitude!

...to Roberto's Blog!

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Black is Beautiful! Part 2

Black is Beautiful! Part 1

Gratitude, a PurpleBench, and Thou...

​More Gratitude!

...to Roberto's Blog!

Archives

Categories

More Gratitude!