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TEDx Talks
Published: 2017-09-14
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTg6iRwKAt0
okay guys I think so much out for having me and the name of this talk is called a color blind %HESITATION your skin is green %HESITATION so we have this idea that seeing is believing %HESITATION perhaps and one notion about creative people that I like to challenge tonight is that creative people that once you see things that aren't there that the Tim Burton's the world are
the folks that see pics sees that sea dragons that see ghosts arm but what I'd like to suggest instead is that creative people and creative thinking out might actually help us see things more vividly and more clearly so I think one thing that tends to happen to us %HESITATION as we get older %HESITATION is that our brains can become hijacked a by everyday %HESITATION routines and
I usually points there around fourth grade or so is that period where we %HESITATION start becoming a little bit more self conscious about what our friends think and might be a little bit more comfortable %HESITATION just deferring are from activity so every teachers challenge I think sometimes is dealing with %HESITATION students that say oh I can't do this I can't do that %HESITATION you know another
word sob props not willing out to try to free to try all but it seems that we get up particular %HESITATION deeply strong reaction becomes the arts of for example Umphrey ask people are you an artist %HESITATION for instance over over again it's almost like %HESITATION asking someone if they've robbed a bank or done something horrible they are known to you know not me I know
my brother's an artist %HESITATION you my aunt you know she likes to draw I don't have a creative bone in my body but then it you know they don't sound ignorance yeah you know like a good museum %HESITATION sometimes %HESITATION so I guess if that's your reaction I would %HESITATION just you know sort of a challenge you to open your mind that's really what our teaching
is a judo trek out really to try to %HESITATION foot people's minds to you I accept new things I I don't want to try a little bit of an exercise here I'd like everyone in the audience if they would for a moment to think of a dinner plate okay scientific with dinner plate nope we see a quick show of hands how many folks are thought to
be white dinner plate white dinner plate okay that's a Lotta hands okay so from what I could see and hear the that the lights are in my eyes but it seems like a lot of hands on okay now I want to try something else okay I want you guys to think about the last sporting event the last concert %HESITATION that you went to last time you
were in an arena okay and I want you to think I'm an adjective to describe the size of that place you walk into a stadium rate and the stadium is okay so so think about a word okay so how many folks said at large okay see some are just huge big enormous gigantic all rights issues like we have a very large verbal vocabulary right how many
potential visual vocabulary ought to be limited which we tend to kind reduce it are two one a prototype in and that's certainly something we can expand upon okay %HESITATION so now it's time for the heart of %HESITATION over matter and that's to talk a little bit about color okay so on three guys okay grass is grass is green okay so grass is green okay so let's
take a look at that if we could offer moment I know I would say Patrick's day approaching how many folks thought of that leprechaun %HESITATION green I perhaps for grass but we look an actual I'm sample of grass actually and a wearable primaries I some hiding around here some this photo %HESITATION in here whilst we see that your sex very few greens %HESITATION so even in
the springtime in the grass a little bit more more vibrant that it is now we're gonna see all of tones will see purples will see golden colors brushing Akitoshi too many greens impact in this photograph areas that I could swear were green the fringes of the trees are those are actually sort of a purplish green a dark dark %HESITATION you know if you watch the FARC
the color on the far right side of I I doubt that that's the green that people thought all one thing that I really have to refresh my art classes when they come and %HESITATION is the Sesame Street topic of primary colors %HESITATION you know and up from there the secondary colors complementary colors %HESITATION so hopefully this is a nice cheap she of the color chart for
you are but in some ways the basic color real %HESITATION might just do us a disservice if we kind of %HESITATION limit it %HESITATION Q. their conventional color wheel that we see on the left for example just mixing colors with whites muted colors are you see that there's array of possibilities in it and it doesn't stop there be we could mix colors over blacks overgrazed over
opposite colors %HESITATION colors really do some phenomenal things %HESITATION when using web media up so a bleeding techniques like watercolor we see all kinds of color possibilities there layering colors on top of each other in fact there's so many color mixing %HESITATION opportunities and it's just so vast that I think that's one reason I you might be familiar with the sort of stereotypical messy artists palette
at a certain point it's almost more intuitive %HESITATION to %HESITATION mix colors at in the manner that you see on the pallet on the left intuitively for those of you guys that were around %HESITATION back in the sixties %HESITATION you might remember that the %HESITATION peach crayon I was initially called the flash crayon and then %HESITATION Crayola %HESITATION you know thoughtfully responded to the fact that
they had %HESITATION diverse audience %HESITATION who like to use %HESITATION their crayons and also they made it more skin tones and they also I changed the flash %HESITATION color it became known as peach I but there's some problems with that we look at the peaches off by two the rate that we're done with our color pencil songs like a crayon in there I mean you'll see
that there's quite a variety of colors so there's really no way that that peach could be you know selected in and serve accurately describe a peach and it's really can describe a skin %HESITATION either I'm one experience I had when I walked into muse of museum when I was younger and we went and we're checking out some of the early renaissance %HESITATION work a you know
a lot of it's a little bit creepy you know you have these got a figures %HESITATION wanting the research surreal about it as I remember seeing a green Madonna and child and I later realized it was explained to me by professor that I wasn't she the paint on the surface that were appealing off the green with a green undertone so there's cool undertones underneath %HESITATION representing
me on oxidize blood underneath %HESITATION the skin skin actually is green Mona Lisa %HESITATION world's most famous painting %HESITATION in many respects %HESITATION but famous for a reason you might not know how Leonardo da Vinci achieved forty glazes forty thing glazes that he I'm a many many ex invented %HESITATION himself but he painstakingly layer them on top and that's we get the soft texture of %HESITATION
the skin %HESITATION and it's also how we get that are mysterious atmosphere in and back so %HESITATION certainly no singular crammed what I've done there %HESITATION though impressionists %HESITATION for example I like Renoir they were actually initially despised for making work that wasn't finished that wasn't a layered %HESITATION quite in the same way for revealing those colors underneath a but since then you walk into a
museum those become I think %HESITATION one of our favorite rooms oftentimes the most popular rooms to walk into just for the beauty of the colors that we see in there so we're talking about %HESITATION skin and color I can't help but pause and I point out the strange phenomenon that we have as human beings this idea of labeling it turned to scan especially arm and I
give up for it difference it's black and white %HESITATION you guys are sitting the black box right now if you were to use the color sampler %HESITATION that's the tool in in in in Photoshop how that you could sample pixels and you would not see any black for instance I innocent tyrants a true black almost never occurs in nature the snow that was falling today %HESITATION
of your sample that %HESITATION with the sampler not really gonna see any white in the air I either on so we think of the term racism off for those of us who haven't been on the receiving end maybe just seems like a word but I wanna challenge the RD to do something for a second and I want you to think about that term I feel a
term as much as you can and I want you to think about every single act of racism in history every single act of %HESITATION discrimination humiliation brutality bigotry the worst possible crimes slavery murder %HESITATION crunches to unspeakable to imagine just millions of tears tremors out torments I just lie shattered over what justified by what by this strange concept of of of skin color the strange artifact
artificial construct of skin color I'm so that them for for me has %HESITATION hit home %HESITATION more recently of my wife is in the audience out right now along with our adoptive son %HESITATION is here and %HESITATION he's been with us since he's a ban a a baby in one %HESITATION interesting thing %HESITATION is when we go to fill out a form swimmer at either at
the doctor's office are were filling out legal forms I were asked to check often at ethnicity and the opera thing that would have to explain over over again has been don't know it's it's also strange because %HESITATION you know it it it makes a little sense to me friends %HESITATION neighbors strangers come up %HESITATION they are taken by how handsome he is invariably are they like
to %HESITATION start guessing %HESITATION what his origin is and it is a little interesting %HESITATION that people are so preoccupied with their age I do doubt you know if he was identified for examples as Caucasian that there be the same always he Slavic or Scandinavian I just have to know you know %HESITATION %HESITATION so Bob but %HESITATION it but you know I've heard gases of you
know central American Indian are now you must be from the South Pacific %HESITATION maybe he's so Yummy bees Asian and %HESITATION there's also a lot of our fascination of the possibility he might be a black of we we don't %HESITATION no some quadrants for mixed family my mixed family %HESITATION this is actually a coming from %HESITATION from %HESITATION my son and I standing next to each
other and the same a photograph and I I do want to back up and just say I'm a typical response by the way when people ask %HESITATION would they say %HESITATION well what is the I typically say well I he's a toddler I now he started to walk %HESITATION he was a baby before that and then they go no you know what but where is he
from and I say Massachusetts I which is true again I'm I'm not trying to be %HESITATION flippant with that %HESITATION answer and I don't want you %HESITATION you know %HESITATION undermine a cultural heritage %HESITATION but it again it's a certain fascination I think with with skin color that were interested in %HESITATION and so that's why I wanted to put on my skin color up next to
his skin color both standing next to each other I simple three areas I simple highlights mid tones and darks the purple actually represents our fingernails I we weren't wearing nail Polish that's I sampled that several times just to our %HESITATION just to be sure of that on but the darker one eye is actually mine you know people use term are color blind a positive way to
me to look be on our skin color up however I'm very aware of of of of of color as an artist if you're taking watercolor class trees shimmer with color the people around you dance %HESITATION with color and if someone ever ask served if %HESITATION if my son ever asks %HESITATION what am I %HESITATION the answer so simple you're my son I think that art and
