For the Love of Color

                                                   Oxidized silver, felted wool, 2008

My local paper is covering the subject  of "Happiness" in several parts. These days research indicates 60% of happiness is determined by genetics, however the remaining 40% is influenced by learning and even practice. Meditation has been shown to activate areas of the left hemisphere that stimulate "positive" feeling. Apparently, we aren't very good at predicting what will make us happy, but fortunately our brains like to manufacture happiness. This is a useful survival tool. Which brings me to the act of creating, creating for me is a bit like manufacturing happiness in the moment. I'm certain our brain waves respond to color, mine do anyway. Plenty of people decorate their homes or dress themselves according to theories of colors' emotional impact.

My work has fluctuated between stark tonalities and full blown color saturation. I have speculated in the past that this may be because I was at a very formative age, during the transition from black and white to color TV. After all the networks introduced color, I would still seek out the Saturday morning, black and white oldies repeats as a visual reprieve.

However, I always return to color, to communicated mood yes, but also, simply for the love of it.