What started as an exercise in figuring out how to use my two most underused colors - purple and pinks, has triggered thoughts about gendered aesthetics. Reuse and reducing waste is a main principle in my artistic practice and has been a useful tool in finding new approaches to my work. Not wanting to just let those colors just sit there in my palette, I had an idea to use these neglected colors as a base and explore how I can blend with other colors to find new hues or pairings that could be interesting and to my liking. Through the study, I started to learn which hues mixed well and liked this sort of two-tone texture happening. I painted the base in checkered and tonal patterns to compare the dark and light purples and pinks. When applying different color combinations over the baselayer, I began to also break the grid of the checkered patterns and find more interesting multi-tone proportions and unexpected interplays of colors.
But then, I started to consider why I have these colors leftover. Could it be that I find these colors more feminine, and therefore, I avoid them being associated with my “branded” aesthetic which gravitates towards a more cool color palette? One could interpret this undertones color study as an attempt to overlay more masculine colors as sort of an erasure of feminine qualities. But I quite like these overlaid tones that have a new warmth and nuanced texture to my typical color palette. I actually prefer when the colors blend because it feels more saturated and clean, however there are moments where the contrasts make some dynamic pairings of color. And perhaps because color has such strong social and cultural connotations when presented in their pure flat hues, there needs to be more variation and nuance when designing something that is meant to represent a group of individuals. When I think of the Pride flags, colors are usually separated and very saturated. Perhaps in order to represent a more nuanced community, there needs to be undertones, overtones, highs and lows. I’ve created these digital compositions from my color studies that add more movement in breaking the grid and play with loosening the initial restrictions I put on myself when starting a creative project.
