Color and Feeling

Color is an interesting thing. To different people, it will evoke different emotions. To someone, red might make them angry, but to another person it might make them think of love. This past week we watched two videos that explored emotions in color.

Color can have many effects on emotion, however this can often be unpredictable. Color conveys a feeling of being alive. Bolder colors equals stronger emotions. Vincent van Gogh in his painting of a cafe, attempted to convey feelings of depression and that 'men could make bad choices' in this place. He used contrasting colors of red and green to highlight these emotions. Artists make deliberate choices when choosing colors to work with in order to portray certain emotions and messages through their art. Warm colors can evoke feelings of happiness, while cool colors may bring feelings of sadness.

A theoretical aspect of color that intrigues me is the fact that we all respond differently to colors. Each individual person brings all of their own experiences and emotions to a piece, and this in turn effects how the view colors. Also I was very interested in how colors for paint were made. How only certain parts of the world had special colors, and that some colors were made from crushed beetles!

In the Color video, what had the biggest impact on me was that the artist depicted focused on natural light. She kept going back to her painting in order to get the natural light just right. She had a unique style of painting and a special interest and passion for color that really shone through in her work.

In the Feelings video, I found that the quote about how art impacts civilization had the biggest impact on me. The fact that there was a turn around in thinking and people stopped looking to God for answers on how to be more civilized and started to turn to art was very interesting.