Although I don't paint anymore, being an artist has had a profound impact on the person I am even now. I was always interested in art. I remember at 5 years old copying the Sunday comics with a crayon. I began to think about a career in art after being singled out by an art teacher in the 7th grade. I was soon doing designs and illustrations for the student school paper. At the time I found that I really liked the attention, but not the work. To me drawing was freedom, maybe even therapy. But having to do it for other people was a lot harder. I hated deadlines and the criticism one gets from others who want you to do it THEIR way. But I put up with it because it was good for my ego. By the time I finished high school I had discovered painting, which was a medium I had always avoided. With good reason: I'm color blind. Drawing in ink or charcoal was one thing. But I had taken that as far as I could. So I learned painting, I found that I actually loved it! being color-blind, I learned to mix color rather scientifically. When I would try free-form I would get interesting, if far fetched results. I majored in art in college. In school I began to experience that sensation of feeling penned in, because I again had to perform for others, in spite of my color blindness, I was doing well but I started hating my classes. I kept painting and started to develop a personal style. I painted exclusively in grayscale. My paintings were architectural, devoid of people, and according to friends, depressing. I painted surreal impressions of the bleak urban landscape I grew up in. As the years went by, I kind of lost interest in painting, I guess I said what I had to say. I found that the art world wasn't for me. And the reverse also was true; for some reason the wealthy didn't want pictures of abandoned buildings over their sofas! Below are some examples of my work.
I'm color-blind mainly in the red-green part of the spectrum. Since it is
exceedingly rare for a person to be totally color-blind, its more accurate to
refer to it as a color deficiency or Dichromasy. Many people are shocked when they find this out about me.
I have learned the art of
"faking it" pretending to see what others see by making educated
guesses (what color is an orange?) but the truth is I see the world very
differently then "normal" people. It's not exactly what I would call a
compete disability, but it does have a big impact on my life, I didn't
have a
driver's license for most of my adult life. I rarely cook (can't tell if the meat's
done!). My visual acuity can be pretty bad, for instance I sometimes
can't read the menu in a restaurant because a creative color scheme will
make the print hard or impossible for me to read; I can look up at billboards
full of text and see nothing. There is currently no treatment or
corrective lens that can fix this, but I have learned to live with it. After
all, in the listings of sensory disabilities, this one's a piece of cake!
Some Links:
Can Color-Blind Users See Your Site?
My tastes in art tend to run (if you haven't guessed yet) towards the surreal. I always liked the works of De Chirico, and Hopper, which I guess my stuff is somewhat like in subject matter. The lonely, dream like landscapes have always spoken to something inside me. Which is why my painting tended to be highly architectural. I have also always been partial to the Dada movement. I think that has less to do with esthetics then my basic love of the absurd. ( The Philadelphia Museum of Art has a marvelous collection of the works of Marcel Duchamp ) But basically any modern art, such as pop art or super realism. Although I can appreciate the wonderful technical skill of the old masters, I just can't get past the subject matter for very long. I'm just not a fan of biblical scenes and naked ladies! Of course some would argue that a color deficient person has no business commenting on art at all, but that has never stopped me!
Some Links:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Some of my paintings (1978-1987):
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