11/12

I definitely do not remember learning anything about color while in elementary school and what I do actually know is very limited. But the idea of color theory encompasses a lot of different ways to look at color. If you're talking about light and color versus painting and color, its not the same thing. Since this is for art, I'll ignore everything Newton taught us about light and focus on painting and color instead. First off, the color wheel; the color wheel organizes color based on each colors relationship to each other. On a color wheel are each of the primary colors (red, yellow, blue) and then also between each primary color secondary colors that they make like red and yellow make orange, yellow and blue make green and red and blue make purple. Some color wheels also include tertiary colors, which are the colors you get when you mix a primary and a secondary color together.

For a long time my favorite color literally changed day to day. I can’t remember when or why I decided purple was my favorite color. I think it had something to do with a sweater I bought in 11^th grade. It actually wasn’t really that nice of a sweater, but the color of it was this beautiful deep purple that I adored. For some reason I see it as being a very serious and mature but beautiful color, which is why I could see why it would be a royal color throughout history. And I've never really been big on flowers, but I just love how beautiful most purple flowers look.

The role of an artist as a curator is definitely important. Curators have to think about space, color, complementing pieces, how its seen, etc. in the same way an artist should have to think about it. A part of making good art is thinking about how it will be seen by the viewer and the best way to place it in whatever setting it's meant to be shown in be it a museum, gallery or what not. Since contemporary art is a lot of 3D and installation art, curatorial practice is even more important than in painting since artists have to think about the space and their piece together as one.

Curatorship can itself be a part of an artwork. The best example I can think of is when Andy Warhol's famous Campbell Soup show was first shown, it was set up to imply soup cans sitting on a shelf in a pantry (I couldn't find an actual picture of it when it was first displayed, but you get the idea kind of with this one). Without the implication of soup cans on a pantry wall, Warhol's artwork may not have had the impact that it had. If he were to show, say a myriad of random household objects, spectators may not have understood it in the same way. His curatorial play on the idea of a kitchen pantry made that exhibit.

As a 3D or installation artist, curatorial practice is much more important because you really do have to think about the piece in the space it's meant to be shown and how it will be seen. A good example that I can think of would be Martin Creed's Work No. 203. When he was originally commissioned to do the work he wanted to do something for the outside of the building, which was originally an orphanage, later a salvation army, and has almost always been used as kind of a public building that people could go to for help. In thinking about that whole aspect of it, he wanted to something that would relay a hopeful message to everyone that saw it. By placing "everything is going to be alright" on the entablature he encompasses this hopeful message, but also relays a much darker one that implies things aren't necessarily alright right now. In that sense, he definitely thought about the space in which he was showing his artwork and how he wanted it to be seen, much like a curator would.