The Coloring Book

A thought piece on Pink is a Color that Feels Like Love (August 29th– October 6, 2018)

Think about our lives as a coloring book. The outlines are there. A house is a house, a cat is a cat, or even things so small and insignificant such as a toothbrush, are still just a toothbrush. Everything is drawn out for you, guiding you through daily life with substantial ideas. We follow these guidelines willingly, however, the importance of the coloring book is not necessarily just the contours. Yes, they are important and they keep you engaged, helping you to imagine the larger picture; but it is what we read between the lines that is truly significant. These are the colors we see.

Colors let you experience ourselves, our identities, our personalities. By seeing colors, we can express ourselves and how we feel. A bright yellow can remind you of the sun on your face at the beach, or brown can make you yearn for the bare trees in the winter time. Red could make you feel angry and fuel with rage, or purple could make you feel calm and centered. Pink is a color that could make you feel love. Orange is a color that could make you feel warm. Whatever you see, you can also feel or interact with.

Within this coloring book of life, you are the artist, you are in control, and therefore you can make the colors we percieve anything you want them to be; magenta, chartreuse, teal, lavender, mauve, burgundy, eggshell or even tangerine. As the artist, you get to choose what colors we use; all stored in our little crayon box. However, there is a downside to our box of crayons. Yes, colors give you the freedom to award personality to objects and to show off our identities, but by being given the privilege of freedom, the artist is also given the privilege to judge, to hate, to question, to express, and to advocate. By given the power of color we are given the power to recognize, read in between the outlines, and speak up for those who maybe can’t see what we do. By being given our little crayon box, the artist becomes the hero.

In the ongoing exhibit, “Pink is a Color that Feels Like Love,” three artists are doing exactly this. Their pieces revolve around questioning the stigmas attached to color, how the color of our skin, though pre-determined, is not a fault, or the LGBTQ+ rainbow of colors is not a shame but a celebratory relic. They use colors to finally be heard. Colors that are usually judged, hated are instead expressed and advocated; using our crayon box to its full capacity.

Within the show there are a series of books that invite viewers and artist’s alike to critically analyze the colors we percieve and the colors we choose to see. We ask how each color of our crayon box can make you feel. Red is a color that feels like…., blue is a color that feels like…., purple is a color that feels like… etc. The responses are endless and serve as clear representations of our voices, screaming and shouting in despair and encouragement, the voices we seek to be heard. Come into the gallery to experience these voices and of course read between the outlines in our own coloring book.

Come experience Pink is a Color that Feels Like Love exhibition in The Stamp Gallery, happening now through October 6, 2018. 

Written by Tess Hyatt

 

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