2. A love affair with color
My dad instilled in me both a curiosity of how things work and a
lifelong love of color when he helped me with my very first science fair
project. Together we created a spinning disk with his old Erector set
and a color wheel that helped me explain how white was really the
presence of all color. I was smitten, my dad was probably hoping to
make science interesting to me, but helped create a designer instead.
I see the world in Technicolor, and through the years have been
disappointed that the pictures I brought home from my travels were
never what I remembered seeing. Photo editing software has changed
all that, now I can turn the pictures I have taken into what my memory
truly holds.
Like so many artists, I am drawn again and again to places in the world
that offer special light, that light is a reality that the camera often
does not convey. In the past painters always had the advantage, I now
have my own paint box in my computer that allows me to express what
keeps drawing me back to places like Tuscany and New Mexico.
First my innate curiosity requires that when I travel, I understand why
both the built and natural environment look like they do. It is natural
that indigenous stone was used as a building material, but only when I
return home do I discover that Monte Amiata, the focal point of many
Tuscan landscapes is the source of what we know as “raw sienna” and
“burnt sienna” pigments that are the basis of the ochre look of
Tuscany along with the travertines, marbles and other stones found in
the region
17. … a town fortified with a massive, fully intact Renaissance wall is a delight of ochers
from light to dark, from cool to warm, with a range of green trims throughout town.
Cars are not allowed and the bicycle is the chief form of transportation
Lucca