Life in Living Color

Sometimes, inspiration can come to you in the weirdest of instances. This time, I was not in my usual brainstorming corner, I was walking home from accounting class of all things. I have recently misplaced my iPod and so that leaves me to listen to the sounds of campus on my trek back from class. The Kansas sunshine was especially bright that afternoon and I began thinking, I wonder if that big yellow ball as a CMYK value. Probably, I thought, but then again, how the heck am I supposed to assume it's accurate?

My first idea for this photo collage of mapping time and space is to harness colors that are deemed personal to you. Colors that revive a certain experience, person, or memory. For example, the yellowed skin on my hands from the calluses that countless rowing practices created. Take a picture of it and create a CMYK value for it. The interesting thing I think will happen is that these presumably 'ugly' colors will become beautiful when placed in different contexts.

One of my many 'mind maps'

Compositionally, my plan is to take numerous pictures of a paint chip display at a local hardware store and then collage those pictures together to make one, life-size photograph of the display. Then, I'll make color swatches of colors personal to me: the puke brown of the Mississippi River (my home), the blue sapphire of my mom's wedding ring (the stone of September of which all three of her kids were born), and the faded pink of a Barbie shoe (the preschool toy of choice).

The idea is that all these colors will represent time; my childhood, growing older, and becoming an adult. And the more I thought about it, the bigger my idea grew, what if I didn't just made it of my childhood, I made it of other's lives. Would theirs be different? Similar? Or what if I continued the theme and did a series of swatches of my life here at KU? How would those differ from those of my childhood?

This idea probes a whole lot of questions and I think by answering them, it will give me more insight to my own life and the experiences I've had. It would make me take a step outside of the usual and investigate as almost an outsider, something that seems very daunting but in the end, very rewarding.