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 13th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
People also associate green with earthly things and fresh things (usually positive).
There are both positive and negative connotations with many colors. And I realize black CAN be used to describe class and elegance. But you DIDN’T associate it with those things, you used it as a negative. I just asked why.
fun fact: pink used to be associated more with males than females. I wonder why it changed?
October 13th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
I said black because the original quote was referring to shadow. Shadows are usually dark. Had I said “yellow”, it wouldn’t have had the same effect.
As for pink being associated with men…can’t everything be traced back to men first?
October 13th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
The “effect” being to say that you have to just “deal” with the horrible black. And that black was negative.
Yeah most things can, but at the same time I guess I don’t really have a problem with that. I guess some things are more suited for men, and others are more suited for women.
October 13th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Yes -we do have to “deal with” the negative in our lives.
I don’t have a problem with it either and yes men and women are typically suited for different things. The point of my site is that when a woman wants to pursue a dream that may be considered unconventional for her gender, that she should have ample opportunity to do that.
October 13th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Then you should have just said that instead of tying it to black.
Exactly. But then again parents should also teach children to realize there are some things they just cant do.
October 13th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Did you read the featured quote? I was tying it to the quote which was referring to an artist’s palette where the color black was being used to add shadow or depth to an object. “Black” was the correct word choice there.
And telling kids there are some things they can’t do is ridiculous. Why set limits?
October 13th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
of course i read it otherwise i wouldn’t have asked my original question which was, why do people feel the need to associate black with negativity?
lol limits? really? or is it just being realistic. do you believe there are things you cant do or are you actually naive enough to believe you can do everything? Whenever I do have them I want my children to work hard towards goals, and if they cant achieve them they need some way to realize it and either move on or try something new instead of continuously doing the same things trying to get different results. Which will happen if they don’t understand that there are some things they just cannot do.
October 13th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Yes - I do believe people can do anything they set their mind to do. That is not being naive. One needs to look no further than the technology in front of our faces to realize that people are amazing and creative beings. The limits we set are our own and are in no way permanent roadblocks to what we can achieve if we truly believe in ourselves.
October 13th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
If you set your mind to it do you think you could become a supermodel?
October 13th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Yes.
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