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A World Without Color!
June 2022

‘I can read in red.
I can read in blue.
I can read in pickle color too.’ 

- Dr. Seuss, 

I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

After a set of three blue monochromatic zines, it was time to make something colorful. The result is an assemblage of frames extolling color.

Color is very personal –  the sensory perception of wavelengths of light interacting with the neuronal biology of photoreceptors. Color is individualized via neural interpretation and linguistic expression. What’s more, different eyes in the same head can experience color uniquely and can change over time (e.g. yellowing). I have noticeably different color casts from left eye to right. There is even single-eyed colorblindness. 

My wife describes our house as “red,” while I declare it, “orangish.” It’s unclear if the difference is from the seeing itself or just the naming (fyi the paint is called “Ancient Copper” for what that’s worth). Recall “The Dress” controversy of 2015, when the world failed to come to consensus on whether a dress in an internet photo was black and blue or white and gold. 

Attempting to capture the magical side of chroma, I added texture and saturation to palettes of colors. The texture of the oil pastels I used is best represented by photography with low-angle lighting, rather than flat-bed scanning. Low-angle lighting helps provide shadow and convey the actual depth and texture in the printed illustrations. To enhance both color and texture, I used a sgraffito technique, scratching with a stylus to remove the oil pastels, for hatching and patterns that uncover contrasting color strata below.

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