Blog on videos about color

Questions and Topics for Your Blog Posting:

1. Describe Color and it's effects on emotions. Use the appropriate vocabulary of color in your posting.

None of the visual elements of art give us as much pleasure as color.  Color theory, properties, & harmonies, as well as light & pigment, are all factors in art.  Color has also been liked to affects on a wide range of psychological & physiological responses in people.    

2. What is a theoretical aspect of color that most intrigues/fascinates you? Why?

 Red is often used in restaurants because it has been shown in tests to increase appetite, therefore stimulating customers to eat more.  But in Van Gogh's painting of a cafe interior, he used the combination of red & green, which we often associate with Christmas, as a representation of going mad.  He thought the clash of colors was unnatural, & invoked terrible feelings.  Blue can be said to have a calming effect because it is a "cool" color.  But blue can also be linked to sadness, royalty, or have religious connotations.  So each color evokes a different response based on each person's individual responses to that color or associations with the color.  I find this interesting because 1 person may find the color red, for example, terror-inducing due to some past experience with the color involved, whereas another person can look at the same thing, & see beauty. 

3. In the Color video, what made the biggest impact on you in regards to color and it's effects on emotions?

The Color video didn't really have any 1 thing in regards to color & its effects on emotions that really stood out to me.  I did find it interesting that the Scottish painter, June Redform was very unhappy with the 1st painting she did at her home.  She said something like "I hate the colors." & complained about how the blue stood out in her eyes so strongly.  I kind of liked the 1st painting, & thought the blue looked good.  I also liked the historical explanation of the making of the pigments for paints.  Burnt sienna & raw umber were made literally from the local earth, & were extremely cheap to make, whereas Carmine red was imported from Turkey & made of crushed beetles, & ultra marine was the most expensive & made in Afghanistan. 

4. In the Feelings video, what made the biggest impact on you in regards to color and it's effects on emotions? 

In the Feelings video the part that most interested me was how historically most art was about religion & royalty.  These 2 topics depicted all emotions; from happy, to sad; from emotional anguish to physical pain. But as time progressed through the Enlightenment era, not only was color used to show & cause emotions in artistic expression, but new techniques of darkness, space, light, or stance were used to heighten these emotions even more so.  This time period also marked when art stopped being just about religion & royalty, & became about everyday humanity as well.  It was beginning to be shown that not only does religion & royalty have emotions that were "art-worthy," but everyday regular people did as well.