Process: Color Wheel

I'm beginning a new project based on natural color versus our ideas of color. By "ideas", I mean the way we translate color into man-made materials, objects and art.

The project idea occurred to me early on a Monday morning in June as I was sitting out on the patio at my mechanic's office, waiting for my car to be fixed. For the four days prior, I had volunteered at Review Santa Fe which of course translates into lots and lots of talking about photography and process. This turned out to be an excellent source of re-immersion for me, since I was just coming off of spending an entire year devoted to studying massage and wanted to get back to making work as soon as inspiration struck.

So there I was, drinking tea and reading The Tao of Pooh at the mechanic. I was in an early morning dreamy state, letting my thoughts carry me away from the book, and started considering the Taoist concept of the Uncarved Block, or the true nature of things. That led to thinking about natural versus artificial, like the complexity of a real orange opposed to the flavor of an "orange" popsicle. The little seed of a thought snowballed and I started jotting things down in my notebook. After some brainstorming and then sifting through my scribbles, I gradually came to simplify the idea into a study on color.

One of the first things I did to get things rolling was visit an art supply store. Standing in the midst of rows and rows of pigments, paints, markers, pastels, pencils and papers of all different hues got my synapses firing. I took my time checking out most of the store, looking at objects and seeing if any ideas came with them. I passed a selection of palettes and they caught my eye. I picked up a few of them and let the mental images go, eventually deciding on a white one in the shape of a flower (appropriate to the theme). I had the idea to create a color wheel out of natural objects, though I wasn't sure how the picture would manifest.

I was about to leave on a trip to Costa Rica, so I packed this in my bag in case I found some inspiration there. Sure enough, I ended up making this image:

Just about every time I start making a picture like this, I'm completely unconvinced it will work. Then I end up ignoring that feeling and keep pushing through any uncertainty or frustration, suck it up and find a way.

So I had the palette, the idea, and then came the butterfly. There are butterflies everywhere in Costa Rica; I found this one already dead and in perfect condition on the beach. I carried it carefully in my open palm all the way back to my hotel, where I had no idea what I'd do with it. I set it on a shelf and kept it in mind for a picture. A couple days went by and I came across the blue crab claw on the lawn at my hotel. I later pulled out the palette and tried arranging the butterfly and the claw in it, liked what I saw and set off around the giant lawn at the hotel looking for more colors. I snuck around the gardener, stealing flower blooms and leaves to try, and scoured the grass for other objects. Gradually the color wheel came together.

I shot the image with natural light on a patch of moss, and I really love how it turned out. I'm glad to have it as the initial image for the project, something to keep looking at as I continue to experiment.