Darkness and Light Project

For this project, I chose symbols that best express me, but they were all positive and, in that sense, light. I chose the Heart Chakra symbol to express my wish to always come from a space of love, no matter the circumstances. The hummingbird is there as a symbol of joy, to acknowledge my internal search to develop being happy without a reason, since if we need a reason to be happy, as soon as the reason is gone, the happiness goes with it. The G is there to give my family presence, since it is the first letter of my first name. The way I write it resembles the symbol for eternity, an allusion to my spirituality. The flowers represent growing together with another person. I just now realized that there were no symbols in my project that expressed or acknowledged my dark side, my faults or flaws in any way…

Light and Dark Assignment

In my project, the way I approached it was that whatever was representing me was light, while the background was all black—as in the creation stories where first there was darkness, and then light was bestowed allowing everything to become visible, and allowing us to see. In a way, choosing the elements that I wanted to use to represent me, was a way of bringing these things into the light, into visibility as I cut away the black paper to give them shape.
I found it interesting how Kara Walker does most of her work in black and white, and that the same idea of dichotomy that is represented through the colors (black and white) and the technique that she utilizes (from the late 18^th century applied nowadays) is also found in the stories that are told by her characters. The people represented are those who have most of the power and those who are mostly victims, but even those that have very little power are represented both while having power and while being the victims of power, such as the Negress.
It was fun reading William Kentridge’s article and how he talks about the nature of shadows when writing about Black Box, and that “something about shadows makes us very conscious of the activity of seeing.” The idea of light and shadow as representing the things that we see and don’t see in all areas of life, and through all the senses, is a very interesting analogy. I know that there are often things right in front of me, that no matter how much natural light shines on them, I still don’t see them—somehow, to me, they are in the shadows—inaccessible.

Color assignment entry

I loved reading Code Pink, because it gives an actual example of how much of these associations we make are just made up--even though we relate to them as absolute truths. One thing I noticed when visiting India, was how men there unabashedly wear pink. I shared a train cabin with a guy who carried his work papers in a very big and pink tote bag. That was the first time I really realized that at some point someone in this hemisphere decided that pink was for girls, and we've been blindly following that for some reason...

I think color is a power force in visual arts 9as per each article) because:
1. It's such an example of how we create our reality and perception. Someone decides pink is for girls decades ago, and here we are still following that as if it really was some kind of truth other than what we make up. But these associations are at the core for who we are, despite being real or made up. Depending on the culture colors arise different feelings and reactions, and to me art is all about inspiring emotions and reactions in the viewers...
2. Going back to how perception is manufactured, it was interesting reading about creating a product in a different color and with a higher price point makes that color be perceived as a "class signifier." 
3. The way the color red in described at the end of I am Red is pretty and relates to the emotions and experiences we tend to relate to the colors--which often varies according to different cultures.

Ultimately, color is powerful because from them we have emotional reactions that can makes love or hate a piece of art. Despite the reaction being positive or negative, there's a reaction and feelings that weren't there before looking at a piece, and to me, that's what art is all about.