In A Particular Way

I love the color combination in this one because I never expected the pink and brown to look so nice together. I wanted to experiment with breaking “rules” about color and composition to see what would happen – hoping it would make me uncomfortable, and it does. I made the hands very close in color, but they’re different – one is almost black and the other is brown. I’m so happy with the way the printer (SugarPress) got this right in my giclees. I put those big giant hands almost in the center, too. I won’t get into why this is against the “rules” because it’s art and this is how I wanted it.

“In a Particular Way” was painted during some months when skin color was something people were talking a lot about. One of my friends in particular is super, duper dark skinned and one day we were talking about the various shades in his family and friend group and his feeling of being at the far end of the color chart, so to speak, and shortly after that I saw a FB post from another different friend who was talking about her place in the color chart, which she sort of described as a not very deserving place, and so I got all caught up in the infinity of it all, where no matter who you are you occupy a particular speck on the scale, and what if you forget about the scale completely and smack up against somebody else (ANYBODY else), then are you on a scale of two points? Or are you just there. Without a scale. Without any reference point. Free floating into infinity.

This reminds me of when I was a child and I would ponder what stars where after the stars that were after those stars that were after the stars after THOSE stars – not knowing where the universe ended. Very overwhelming.

This is a painting about two people on a two point scale. The original is still available in my studio and is 12 x12x 1.5″.