Monday...

Today I had a rough time painting. I couldn’t seem to put together anything great on the canvas. Then after struggling with my paintings I managed to drop my cell phone in a stream (it no longer works), followed by dropping the one painting that I thought might work… face down… in a pile of dirt. Oh well.

Tonight I watched Helvetica, a great documentary covering the influence of a font on our visual culture. It’s easy to forget the fact that every typeface/font that we read, write and design with has been meticulously crafted for each letter to be clear, and for those letters to read well in a group. Watching this movie, I couldn’t help being impressed by the power that designers have. The font chosen for a logo can be a daily, visual impression. As the movie points out, the subtle differences in a font gives it very different personalities. Watching this movie makes me more aware of the way our world has been crafted by so many little decisions by others.

6 Responses to “Monday”

1. Kelley MacDonald says:

   April 5, 2010 at 10:57 pm

   Well, Colin, we’ve all had days like this (they even made a song about it, remember ? “Momma said there’d be days like this…”)! My family is almost competitive about how we lose/wreck our cell phones. The insurance people just sneer at us by now.

   Anyway I don’t know when you did THIS painting, but I really like it. The composition just keeps you right in there, looking at every little thing you found interesting!

   Dropping paintings in the dirt facedown is God’s way of saying “tomorrow is another day, Colin….”
2. admin says:

   April 5, 2010 at 11:08 pm

   Thanks Kelley,

   This painting is only a few weeks old. It’s a small garden at a farm up here. It’s just waiting for that warm weather.

   Thanks for the encouragement.
3. kathleen mack says:

   April 6, 2010 at 9:14 am

   Hey Colin,
   Once I did a painting in Brittany….it was SO windy, the canvas blew off my easel and skimmed across someone’s beautiful hedgerow, leaving a trail of cad red, ultramarine blue, and tons of white……..very French!

   I love the painting that you posted…the light, the cool air….you can sense the ground warming in preparation!
4. Dan C says:

   April 6, 2010 at 12:16 pm

   Yeah what they said and Great piece Colin!
5. Susan Renee Lammers says:

   April 8, 2010 at 11:31 pm

   Hi I lost many paintings until I discovered gorrilla tape! I tape them down and then put them into my wetcarrier! Success! It is really windy here in Maine! Love your work.
6. admin says:

   April 9, 2010 at 9:52 am

   Thanks Susan and Dan, I’ll have to try that gorilla tape for windy days, but this was just clumsiness. The painting slipped right out of my hands when I was carrying it.

   Kathleen, I love the image of spreading your paint across someone’s garden. That is one I haven’t managed to do yet. I’m sure it’s funnier now than it was then.