Is there black in your palette?
For the month of October, I wanted to start sharing some of my favorite quotes by women. If you’ve noticed in the top corner of the header, there are quotes that randomly change when the page refreshes. These are from my insanely huge collection of quotes that I have collected over the years. I like quotes. I just love it when people can capture a huge idea or an inspirational thought and then simplify it in just a few words. It amazes me.
To kick things off, I thought I’d start with a quote that is attributed to one of my favorite singers of all time, but in fact it actually came from the late Minnie Pearl as Amy Grant tells us:
“I’m thinking about a conversation we had years ago,” she says. “It was after Minnie’s stroke, and she was bedridden, but this was one of her lucid days. We were talking about light and dark. She was saying, ‘They’re both a part of life. For instance, what do you think is the most important color on an artist’s palette?’ I said I didn’t know. She said, ‘Black, of course. Without black, no color has any depth. But if you mix black with everything, suddenly there’s shadow — no, not just shadow, but fullness. You’ve got to be willing to mix black into your palette if you want to create something that’s real.’”
I just love that quote. As a designer, I love any kind of artistic references but this one is especially moving. In order to be real, we have to mix the dark in with the light. In order to have any kind of depth (think maturity, character), we have to experience the bad along with the good. If we haven’t, we are merely a bunch of pastel colors on a canvas with no shadow, no depth to our character. Without some black mixed into our lives, we’re shallow. We’re not real.
Oh and in case you have no clue who Amy is, here’s your chance to sample her work…Yesterday, Amy Grant released a Greatest Hits Special Edition CD with a bonus DVD containing 5 videos. It actually arrived in my mailbox a few days ago (thanks to the perks of being in the fan club - the only fan club I subscribe to), but I’ve not even had a chance to break the seal on it until this morning. I decided to shred the cellophane and pop the DVD into my drive for a little inspiration. I had forgotten how awesome the “Lead Me On” video is! Fortunately, YouTube has a copy of it for me to share with you. The scenery is just fantastic.
October 4th, 2007 at 1:30 am
Ah, pearls of wisdom from Ms. Minnie Pearl herself.
She was a funny yet wise woman. 
That song, “Lead Me On” always makes me cry…it’s the second verse that gets me every time.
October 13th, 2007 at 10:56 am
i love how certain people always use black to describe something bad…
October 13th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Um, last time I checked…shadows were dark. Black is a dark color. Every graphics program I own uses black as the default color for any kind of shading. What is your point?
October 13th, 2007 at 11:15 am
lol thanks for the art lesson…but that wasn’t what i asked. I asked why certain people always use black to describe something bad.
October 13th, 2007 at 11:28 am
Why is red used to describe angry? Why is green used to describe envy? Why is purple associated with royalty?
October 13th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Maybe because society associates things to the color most seen when the emotions occur? When people get angry their face turns red. Purple was a color dye that was not readily available for a long time so only wealthy people who had a high standing in society could afford it. So what situations are you so uncomfortable with that force you to associate black with negativity?
October 13th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Black = dark storm clouds, gray skies. Black = night. In poetry, night time is often used to describe a “bad time” in one’s life. Are we really having this discussion? What color would you like me to use? Orange?
October 13th, 2007 at 11:55 am
What is so negative about rain and night? We need to sleep and plants need water.
It takes at least 2 people to have a discussion!
Orange is just fine with me!
October 13th, 2007 at 11:58 am
Lol, okay that last comment was overly sarcastic lol. But think about it, it just looks really bad to me when people use black as something so negative. That was my original point.
October 13th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Well my favorite color is green so I should be really mad that people associate it with envy - a NEGATIVE emotion. I happen to like black. It is my second favorite color. I would have preferred to design this entire site in green and black, but chose pink (a color I despise) because it is more feminine. Why does it look bad to use black as a negative? I think every color has some negative attached to it. Should I be upset that my favorite color represents greed? Black can also be used to represent class and elegance. I guess I don’t get where this discussion is going.
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