Envelope Art

I spent the last weekend in January working a booth at the Outsider Art Fair in NYC.  The organizers had donated a space to my mother, Phyllis Kornfeld,  for her project entitled: The Envelope Project: Incarcerated Men and Women Making Art for a Cause. Phyllis invited men and women from facilities across the country, some of whom are her students, to donate envelope art anonymously for charity. For this project, the charity is the Reading Alliance in NYC, a non-profit that hires high school students to tutor reading to kindergarteners and first graders who have been identified as being “at risk” early in their educations.

What does this have to do with architectural color?

What is “Outsider” Art?

To paraphrase Raw Vision magazine, the term ‘Outsider Art’ was originally intended to act as an exact English equivalent to painter and sculptor Jean Dubuffet’s term, “Art Brut,” which identified works that were in their “raw” state, uncooked and unadulterated by cultural and artistic influences:

Art Brut is visual creation at its purest – a spontaneous psychic flow from brain to paper. The purest of Art Brut creators would not consider themselves artists, nor would they even feel that they were producing art at all. Today  many use the term in the loosest way, to refer to almost any untrained artist… It is simply not enough to be untrained, clumsy or naive. Outsider Art is virtually synonymous with Art Brut in both spirit and meaning, to that rarity of art produced by those who do not know its name. Raw Vision Magazine

Color is a pure form of communication. It speaks directly to human beings’ psyches, nervous systems, spirits and more. What is compelling to me about much Outsider Art is its directness: it is palpable and unobstructed access to someone’s humanity. Color is like that. I can analyze why the above envelope is a successful work of art and I will, and I can parse why an environment is well designed.  I can do this because I understand some things about color theory, Art History, humane design principles,  the optic nerve, and whatever else, but all of us recognize when we have a direct line to a soul or a front seat in a sublime environment. We have been spoken to.

Listening

What is (Not) Art?

I like jazz. Some jazz is quite intellectual: it requires masterful skill and understanding from the performer and a  practiced ear from the listener. I am not saying that less intellectual art is more soulful or that more intellectual art is antiseptic.; that compulsive art is more pure and more controlled art is adulterated. I would say that all artists make choices. Sometimes these are conscious and other times not. I went to art school and you can best believe that people were asking and answering what art is all the time. For me, it is something to do with expression sieved through a filter. Like a composer, an artist is selecting and arranging the elements in, one hopes,  innovative ways, to create an effect. The innovation could be deliberate or the unconscious byproduct of each human’s idiosyncrasy, or both; the effect could be establishing a mood in the audience or a release for the artist herself, or  both. There should not be so much filtration however, that the work becomes stilted. Purely intellectual exercises are mostly dispiriting. Some sense of spontaneity is imperative, and I suspect, one signal of humanity.  Above all, art should not be boring.

A joke: What is the difference between artists and scientists? Artists show their bad work.

More Envelope Art

Let’s pretend this is an architectural environment. The effect here is energetic, warm, dynamic, and slightly edgy. The composition is balanced: there is a variety of scale in the lines, for example. The warmth of the overall colors is balanced by the cooler green arrow. The four major shapes in (what sometimes but not always feels like) the foreground evolve from more simple to more complex as you move across the picture plane; if this were an environment we might say it has rhythm. The first envelope has an interesting composition with most of the color on one side, with bits of it creeping into the black and white. It is a fine balance of saturation and desaturation. The first envelope, like the one just above, is full of elements you do not notice upon first viewing. If this were an environment we might say it is ripe for discovery.

Sol LeWitt

I have discussed before how much of what we perceive to be our aesthetic preferences are really  experiences that satisfy how are brains and eyes function, for example, or how we have related to the natural world for thousands of years. In one of my favorite science experiments, the Savannah Project, the Herman Miller company tried to design the optimal work environment. Optimal was defined as workers who were productive, efficient, healthy, and happy. They discovered that some measure of predictability is required (repetition/pattern/rhythm) but also some unpredictability (surprise/mystery).  I see many architectural color designs that have only this first element. These designs look and feel like an intellectual exercise.  These are designs where, for example, the wall color might exactly match pre-existing elements rather than complement them. These designs feel  “designery,” almost like they came out of a kit. Nothing is unexpected. Sol LeWitt carefully planned his pieces because of their complexity and scale but also because other people would often execute them. Some of his pieces wittily contain the instructions (diagrams, figures, directions, etc.) without the full paint  applied, to show the evolution of the piece; indeed that process of creation is itself the art that speaks.  His very deliberate and thoughtful work feels spontaneous. Of course, I use my intellect to design, and intellect is an integral part of my humanity. But even the subtlest color palette can contain elements of surprise, energy, liveliness, and discovery.  This is one of the reasons  I do not have a “go to” white. I want my designs to feel somehow undesigned and natural:  as if that exterior or interior magically came into the world looking like that. Harmony and contrast. Pattern and mystery. Humanity. This is art.

I am back from Ottawa where I gave three lectures at the Caneast Home and Design Expo at lovely Lansdowne Park. I was tasked with discussing how to create mood with color. Since mood is a function of stimulus and the brain’s “alchemy,” I discussed color and human response, and how these responses can be harnessed to create and sustain (if desired) mood in the architectural environment.

Being at a design expo I received many questions regarding trends: How often should I paint a room? I heard dark furniture is “out.” I don’t like taupe; do I have to paint my living room taupe to be au courant? What are the colors for 2012? Etc. I am avowedly anti-trend (for architectural color) and I freely admitted so. My issue with color trends is that while they are fun, they are first,  manufactured, and second, generally ignorant of or disinterested in the actual effect of these colors on human beings. (These are related.) I try to design color as if the interior or exterior were never again going to be painted. Well chosen color simply transcends trend; if I consider desired effect and am creative in my design, then that color (or colors) will never go out of style.

Right now in San Francisco there is a trend of painting Victorians one color, all black or all white usually. This can look fantastic and I am the first to celebrate that looking beautiful is a legitimate goal in itself, especially in an exterior, which is experienced more fleetingly. Other factors need to be considered though, such as scale, exposure, context, and desired effect. For the building below, the owner, who was opening a new bar at street level, wanted an elegant, “European,” and striking statement.  (Almost) all black seemed an appropriate choice here and was practicable because of the Northern exposure. We chose a full spectrum black for the main body,  dusky cream for the top molding, and a beckoning saffron yellow for the entry. The side entry, which goes to two residential units is awash in the cream to stave off a completely nocturnal, club vibe. The southern exposure is in the cream.

 PPC-DT9 Black Bear

C2-347 Benchmark

C2-119 Amontillado

When using all black or all white in a design I think it is even more important to use full spectrum paint, because pure black and white simply do not exist in nature. What we perceive as these colors are, in fact, a myriad of hues spun together. PPC-DT9 Black Bear contains upwards of six pigments  and contains no black. Two of my favorite whites with similar complexity  are PPC-W8 Susan’s White (clean, and creamy, like meringue), and C2-384 Wedding Cake (sparkling and incandescent, like an opal or spun sugar).

What are the color trends for 2012? Is dark furniture “out”? For me, balance is always key. I participated in the color trends issue of Paint Dealer and Retailer Magazine this year. The upshot of all the designers’ observations and predictions is that both neutrals and strong colors are “in.” As I explained at the expo,  I think this sort of schizophrenia  reflects human beings’ natural requirement for both of these types of color (a balance between desaturation and saturation), a necessity stemming from the way we perceive color in the natural world (See Grey Matter Blog).  My hypothesis is that these many designer-prognosticators are unknowingly/sub-consciously trying to reconcile this natural human need and label it a trend. I say, respect your affinity for dark furniture but consider balancing the solidity and weight of such material with some graceful lines, for example, because balance is the key to ultimate and lasting function and beauty. If you are the type of person who craves and needs change on a regular basis, and has the wherewithal, paint as often as the mood strikes you.

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Relating To Color

What is color? Light emanating from the sun, absorbed and reflected by objects on the Earth or elsewhere light is not completely absorbed. For humans (and many animals), color could be defined as Frank Mahnke defines it: sensory perception. Through the visual sense we make sense of the world: assessing scale and depth, navigating through space, and determining danger and safety, among other things. A hummingbird sees ultra-violet light; a flower looks different to her than to us but its “color” and pattern lead her right to it. What is needed to perceive color, which is part of the visual-at least to us-spectrum? Light, an object that reflects it, and an instrument for perceiving it (in our case our eyes and brain). Above all, we need light. Light not only effects our perception of color, it can also be used as a medium in architectural color design.

I

Designing Without Light

This year I was twice asked to design something remotely. One job was an interior in Montana where a special effect was needed to humanize the scale of something quite large. I agreed to do this because light was not an issue: there was no natural light coming into the space and I knew the exact type and temperature of the lights being used. I could therefore, guarantee (to myself) that the color would behave as planned. The design as I viewed it in the full spectrum light of the sun under my skylight would look pretty much the same under the full spectrum lights being used at the Ace Hardware in Billings, Montana. There would be almost no metamerism. There are many kinds of metamerism but their definitions are often conflated to mean, how the same color can appear different under different light sources.

Metamerism

 Different light sources  emit different frequencies and in different proportions, and so effect our perception. For example, incandescent lights emit very few of the shorter blue wavelengths and so we might perceive both blue and black to be the same color under those conditions. (Because of this phenomenon it is a good rule of thumb that warm colors look better under warm light and cool colors under cool light.) I was asked to do an exterior  on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia. I was hesitant but decided I would do it as an experiment. I know or know of some designers who send their colors and color designs across the country without ever having been on site. I also know that many of these designs are abandoned because they don’t work. Even the full spectrum light of the sun can be wildly different from place to place because of latitude and many other factors. Not to mention other perceptual issues such as how the colors are perceived relative to their immediate environment, which is a whole other discussion,  or how the client perceives the colors (no two humans see color equally). I gave the clients ten designs to compensate for the fact that I was not physically present. While all the designs look good inherently; that is, the colors work together and are beautiful, their success on site is ultimately a crap shoot. I have confirmed my hypothesis: for me, I find it unethical to do remote work because I cannot practice my art to the best of my abilities. Please do not hesitate to fly me to your job.

II

Designing With Light

Piscina de Luis Barragan

Last year on my way back from a very small town on the West Coast of Mexico I arrived at the airport to find that Mexicana Airlines had gone bankrupt. A big storm was coming and I had to get out of town immediately or I might be stuck for several days. I borrowed the nice policeman’s laptop and emailed my good friend who was visiting his mother in Mexico City. The next day we spent about six hours going all over town to museums and to see the work of a fascinating architect. Luis Barragan (1902-1988) was formally trained as an engineer and self-taught as an architect. His use of color is legendary and  his command of light as a medium is gorgeous and awe-inspiring. The pool above is in the basement of one of his houses, where we took a tour given by the owner, who lives there. Unbelievable! First, blending of color happens is two ways: for light it is additive and for pigment it is subtractive. Two strong colors of light when blended together produce a third strong color; two strong (or saturated) colors in pigment when blended together produce a desaturated color (see Grey Matter Blog).

Light's Additive Properties

There are only three or four colors painted in the pool room and none in the water itself. As light from the skylight and window (and at night, in the pool itself) washes over the room, the colored light mixes in real time, and new colors and shapes appear, change, and disappear. He used reflected light as paint to create a living, moving piece of architecture. We spent a good half hour in that room. I would like to live in it.

Otra Vez La Piscina

In the picture below, from the same house, he has painted only one side in a saffron yellow. As the light passes over the thin vertical windows, the wall opposite is bathed in curtains of yellow light that usher you through the corridor to the pool room.

Pasillo

I recently completed a commercial/residential project in the middle of Cortland Avenue in Bernal Heights. The property contains both commercial and residential rentals. The facade is a landmark and could not be altered so the owner built above, below, and within. For the facade we wanted a sort of modern and graphic show-stopper that would also highlight the woodwork, which the painter restored.

420 Cortland Avenue

In the back of the property is a courtyard that all the units face. The challenge here was that it is very narrow with the neighbor’s wall being several stories high. I did not want to paint this towering wall in any deep color because it would seem imposing and diminish the space further. I could not do any kind of effect because the neighbor wanted it a solid color and his preference was for white.  I chose a beautiful full spectrum beige-white, Philip’s Perfect Colors B2-Sandstone. That same color is used in various places for trim, while all the other elevations are in colors, some deeper and some subtler. The effect is that light reflects in different ways throughout the day, in essence, creating effects on the large wall that break it up and humanize its scale. While I always consider the way colors play and flow in an architectural environment, I have never before used light in a deliberately creative way.  Gracias a Sr. Barragan.

Lightplay Master

Lightplay Detail

Aftermath of Powerful Neutralizing Ray

I was recently asked to complete Paint & Decorator Retailer Magazine’s color forecast questionnaire. There were questions about perceived trends, recycling and repurposing, and most interesting to me, how the recession is affecting color trends, if at all. Greys and taupes seem to be emerging or re-emerging.  In my estimation, the (over)use of these neutrals is being driven by a few factors: one is that these kinds of colors, especially when made as full spectrum formulas and not completely neutralized, reflect our perception of Nature and so these tend to be enduring colors; neutrals are flexible, moving and changing to complement many elements;  as I alluded to in Part I, neutrals are often a default selection; but another factor seems to be some kind of strange nod to the inclemency or our economic times through almost stoic or ascetic colors, as if color itself were a showy indulgence.

A Neutral Design

At the Designer Showcase, a benefit in San Francisco, I was surprised at the colorlessness of the majority of the rooms. The problem with too much neutrality is that its effect can be austere, over-pacifying, and monotonous.    I have also speculated that in this culture, a highly neutral environment is visual code for elegance and wealth; austerity of color actually creates a palpable effect of quiet and respectful tip-toeing around. This is an interesting juxtaposition with an aesthetic of restraint.

My remedy for austerity is manifold. First, when working with neutrals I make sure the color formulas are complex, so that each neutral has a rich character (creates effect(s)) and is mutable (changes, with the light or its perception relative to other elements, for example); these two qualities ensure a lively environment, even if the desired effect is one of calm. Second, I will often pair a neutral with some highly saturated color, like a wild bloom atop a steady cactus; this balanced combination of desaturation and saturation also reflects our relationship to Nature. Let me be clear, vibrant intense colors, even in small doses, might not be right for all people however, regardless of the  overall effect desired, every design must  posess a  sufficient range between all elements. Light/dark, saturation/desaturation, and solids/patterns must be balanced.

One of the desired effects of using neutrals is to engender a sense of peace. This is based on a misconception. Yes,  the more neutral a color the more it “neutralizes” you, as it were, and for those folks who are more introverted (i.e. get their energy from internal stimuli), they indeed might require softer colors. But did you ever feel agitated standing in a verdant meadow dotted with wild strawberries looking up at a mountain ablaze in golden aspen leaves? The relationship of the colors to one another also engenders peace. I have done many designs with strong colors where the inhabitants feel completely peaceful (and alive).

Austerity Measures

Greys I Have Known

What is a neutral color? To understand this we must consider what is a saturated color. Imagine a scale with red on one side and green on the other. The furthest points on the scale are completely saturated (100% red or 100% green). As you move toward the center, each becomes more neutral; as I add green to the red, I begin to neutralize it: it becomes less red  and more “grey” (neutral). If I mix the right shade of red with the right shade of green (or any two complementary colors), in equal measure,  I can actually make a perfect grey. I have blown many minds mixing paint.  A saturated red has a strong and stimulating (at lease initially) effect, but as I neutralize that red I also neutralize its effect, softening it while retaining some of what red can offer. In terms of mood I am essentially creating a more peaceful red. With a complex neutral made of even more pigments-no black required- I can cook up a neutral that not only gorgeously complements the entire environment on an aesthetic level, but I can also concoct a mood that contains the combined effects of all the pigments therein. Because I understand my medium (color) I can be free as an artist.

Land of the Rising Sun

For the rest of March I will be donating 10% of all  consultation proceeds to the Japanese Red Cross to aid in relief efforts.

Geary St. Before

This house is like so many other San Francisco hodgepodges: several styles smashed together.

The owners wanted their house to be a bit different and to have color, more color than what was common on this Outer Richmond street one block from the ocean. When I saw this house I immediately saw the potential in the shapes and decided I would color block the house, something I have always wanted to do but up unti this point, had never been presented with the coalescing forces to make it happen: right building, clients, moment, and more.

Geary St. In Process

I chose beachy sorts of colors, and a cooler palette than what the couple had chosen for indoors:

PPC-G4 Steeley

PPC-B4 Beachwood

PPC-G5 Suede

C2-401 Wildwood

Beachy because they are a block from the ocean; and cooler because virtually everything inside the house is orange or red; there had to be a complementary relationship present.

I have talked before about wanting to be invisible: (I hope) being known for breadth of creativity, innovative and surprising use and selection of color, and how I put colors together. I see more and more though, that I do have a style of sorts. This was pointed out to me by mother who is an artist, educator, and author. She said my style was smart, both in terms of cleverness but also in the way that someone is a smart dresser: every element is cleanly and beautifully visible in celebration of its inherent purpose/identity, and contributes to a cohesive whole. When someone is a great dresser you can appreciate every piece he has chosen AND the whole package looks great: the sum total and its parts dynamically and seamlessly work together.

(Sort of) After Roy Lichtenstein

C2-484 Summer Squall (body and lower trim)

C2-481 Stout (base and bay window trim)

C2-348 Minimum (main trim)

C2-119 Amontillado (dentils and underhang of bay windows).

I wanted to make the house feel almost flat, like a panel from a graphic novel. I also wanted to create a wonderous-strange (nearly) black and white house, a departure from the standard treatment of this architectural style.  The dentils are painted a brilliant saffron yellow, instead of gold leaf, which might be expected. In this case we used blue-blacks but the effect is essentially the same: graphic, slyly multi-media, and I think, pretty funny.

Fulton Street Detail

Man Cave Chic

I want my color work to be beautiful, surprising, innovative, and in complete collaboration with the user’s desires.  I attempt to extract the kernel of what is desired and germinate it. I do assert myself: I have strong views about what will be successful yet these are always in service to the design goal, which is yours.
Creative application of the materials is paramount to me: in this case, “materials” are the interior or exterior space, the environment in its entirety, all the colors present, the function of the space(s), the colors I supply, and you. Because I have worked with color in so many different media for so long, I don’t  need to rely on what has been previously successful. I don’t wish to repeat myself because  every situation is unique. Creativity by definition is not rote. I want to be bag-of-tricksless. How I put colors together is where I want to make my mark. From the subtlest design to the wildest, I want to be unrecognizable. “Fantastic!” “How delicate!” “That’s outrageous! “Tell me who did that!”

MID-CENTURY PAS DE DEUX

To further illustrate my “invisibility,” here are two recently completed interior designs for two Mid-Century houses, very similar architecturally and each residing atop a hill in San Francisco.

Art Collectors in Forest Hills

This family has an amazing and diverse art collection, which it was their express desire to highlight. The couple has very young children so they also requested a design that was functional and easy to maintain; I therefore used very few (4) colors in this 2 bedroom house, not including ceilings and trim.  For the living room and master bedroom we used Philip’s Perfect Colors B4 Beachwood, a shimmering full spectrum beige that I recently used on an exterior. This color not only is a rich and flexible backdrop to the couple’s collection, but it also contains just enough red to balance their predominately though subtley green furnishings. For the foyer we chose C2-235 Slaty Brine, a slightly dusky yet energizing turquoise, a welcoming burst that also reflects this family’s palpable happiness.

Self-Proclaimed Non-Art Collectors in Golden Gate Heights

This couple had just bought their house from a family of art collectors who had painted the house pretty much beige everywhere. Now let me be clear, I do not think that beiges and whites are necessarily the  best backdrops for artwork in a residential or non-museum setting. (For fascinating colors used in a museum please visit the De Young Museum some time.) As with many design choices, it depends. In any case, this couple requested that the walls be their artwork, since they had very few actual pieces. We used 15 colors in this 2 bedroom house. Some were subtle and some not so much. In the picture to the right there are 7 colors.

A Study in Gold of a Golden Study

To the left is another room in the same Mid-Century house. Alternating planes of color move you throughout the house, like walking inside a painting. For these two houses I took very different design goals and applied them to similar architecture. I hope the designs are equally beautiful and inspiring to their inhabitants and seamlessly dovetail into who they are as people and personalities: again, I hope I have “disappeared.”