Color Snack: Inspiration for new collection of "Paper Candy"
Warning: Art is not edible.
Warning: Art is not edible.
While researching this week's very longread about the origins of the concept of "favorite" and "favorite color", I read a lot of articles about color in the 1950s and 1960s. From the ability of new processes to create plastic products in any color you'd want to the Mini releasing their car in dozens of unique colors.
"Bright Hue Won Favor in the 50's"
During the nineteen-fifties, possible for the first time in history, millions of people were given the opportunity to choose freely from hundreds of of colors to decorate their homes.
The freedom to choose whatever color you want, and the availability of a rich palette of hues from which to select, Mr. Birren said, made the fifties a "bright landmark in the history of color."
The free choice that modern man takes for granted is comparatively new freedom, he said. Elaborate color systems existed in antiquity and lasted, in Egypt, for example, for as long as 3,000 years. These systems, he noted, were deeply imbued with symbolism. Each god, vice, virtue and even architectural elements were assigned color.
New York Times, 12/30/1963
The colors from my new mini-collection may qualify as a "vice", or at the very least "a guilty pleasure".
Over the past 5 months, I've amassed a sizable collection of colored papers, paperboards, cartonboards, from all over, to use in my art. The six by six matrix of colors from the piece I created as the header for that newsletter was not even all of them.
Every single time I play with the papers and colors of a new company, I feel like a kid in a candy store. This particular collection is made from from Neenah Paper, a company established in 1873 in Neenah, WI, and one of the only specialty American-made paper companies with such an incredible range of colors.
I wanted to share a new mini-collection I created apropos of the feeling of being a kid in a candy store and perhaps the results of the ensuing sugar high. After that much sugar, how is someone supposed to stay restrained something like a box? I hope you enjoy the eye candy.
"Paper Candy"
These are all 8x10". If you see something you would like to purchase, you can just click on the image. If it is already sold, or if you would prefer a different size or color combination, you can commission your own unique ones:
8x10" commission | 11x14" commission | 16x24" commission
As always, if you would like something different or unique, you can just respond or email me at ezra@colorphilia.com.