Black & White World
This year 2025 is my black & white year. Color is only allowed as an accent. Gold & Silver are acceptable and must always be used as jewelry.
Last year 2024 was my Hot Colors year. Orange, Rust, Golden Gild, Coral in hushed tones, Bronze, Rose Gold in Deep tones, as well as neutrals.
2023 year it was Purples, Greys, Blacks as Victorian Gothic took hold of my soul.
2022 year I was in my Purple & Blue phase. Jewel Tones & pastels of Lavender & Mint Green Aqua Blue with golds (pinks allowed only as a shade of lavender). Also Pastels took over a bit toward the end.
2021 Was the Mickey Mouse era, adult black & white kitchen with spots of left over red.
2017-2020 All 1950s-1960s green, a calming green you find in institutions, on walls, on industrial items, the MINT GREEN of Tiffanies and MadMen.
2015-2016 I was having a mean case of the REDs & black& white.
2014 I wanted to be sanitized with black & white ONLY no color whatsoever
1994 Back to Black & Black Light
1993 was all about the cow print (I found a bolt of fabric for $1.oo a yard and that set it off. Cows were everywhere that year).
1991 was a pastel paradise in French Pastels of Pink & Mint Green in the room, Black all day everyday in my heart soul and on my body
1987-1990 was a mixture of Grunge, Art, Color, No Color, Punk, Heavy Metal, Alternative, Glam Rock Finding myself and my niche. I hit them all up
Throughout my color journey and just at this moment in typing my thoughts, I see the shifting of my color pallet and where I was at in my life and what was going on at the moment, seriously influenced my view of MY world.
Your world is the exact same world as mine, however; you see it through your eyes, your experiences, your home, your gender, your race, your religion, your political views, your geolocation, your economic sitch, your education, your parents' effects on you, your medical self, your authority figures interactions, your educators, your elders, your gifts & talents, your wants & needs.
So although we are all humans & have eyes & have red blood we see the world OUR OWN way, in our own hues & shades, we each have our own color pallet.
I have always been a weird one who LOVES the Black & White, Film Noir, Artsie Fartsie Black & White weird films, B&W photography, clothing, interior design, architecture.
It is how I FEEL my world. Without color (don't get scientific RN reader!) I can tell what type of fabric is in the art, how it flows or feels, the emotions of the subject matter, how hard or soft the reality of the creation is, where the light actually is, if the subject belongs in the piece or if said subject wishes to be elsewhere.
Growing up B&W film was cheaper to buy & develop. Talking with my BFF & Husband over the last three years about my evolution & questions about myself as a lifelong artist, I absolutely realized that as a very young child I ALWAYS had a camera in hand.
My pops gave me my first 110 camera and I lost it! It was his old one, he got me bulbs & black & white Film. Any other gift would not have stood a chance. Looking back at when I was given this camera that meant very little to my parents, I realized they had been in one of the hardest times of their married lives.
Realizing that now I am even more happy that dad thought enough to give me the old camera. Dad had so many cameras growing up and I would always play with them and thought they were the absolute coolest invention ever created. He did have some very cool ones. He was probably tired of me walking about with his expensive cameras, making everyone pose for my 5-year-old self, creating pretend photographs.
When I say pose, I mean POSE! I set up the most interesting poses for everyone, using absolutely no film whatsoever.
When I did receive my first camera, oh did I take photographs! Weird ones. I was very creative and would take panoramic photographs using a series of photos. Remember, I had 24 photos per roll of film, 2 choices- use flash or not, & a possibility of my photos not coming out, over exposed, under exposed, out of focus, & all. You just had to guess & hope for the best. I was brilliant.
Now let's address the weird kid in the room. I was always sick & allergic to everything, but NOTHING stopped me. My cameras & I went everywhere undaunted. This included catching my little brother using dads' razor to shave when he was about 4. "HAHA! Caught you! I have proof!", I said like an evil genius in a science lab. (which I also love). I just had to wait long enough to get my allowance, someone to take me to the store to drop off my film, wait for it to be developed, wait for it to be mailed, and I could finally get him in trouble for something he did! When the pics came in, I just got a huge laugh from "The Mother".
It did not matter one bit that he did not get in trouble. I had proof still. From that day he knew I could pop up at any time, any place, & catch him doing something stupid (which he did a lot).
So 24 pictures was a huge issue for me. I wanted to document everything. Mostly the weird & unusual.
Next example. The case of the 'Murder under the Fridge'.
Basically, one weekend afternoon in Florida, in a haunted home rented from one of my fav. teachers, SOMEONE, opened the fridge, (it was my Dad I think). The Glass 1980s expensive catsup bottle fell out of the fridge & the lid popped off midair. I saw the incident in slow motion. Dad killed the katsup. It fell on the edge of the bottom at a 45-degree angle, the lid flew up into the air followed by a large swath of catsup, it was glorious! Then it all fell to the ground in the most delicious way.
I jumped up & yelled 'WAIT NOBODY MOVE! DON'T TOUCH IT! I'LL BE RIGHT BACK. Mom, I will clean it up for you". I sprinted to my room, grabbed my camera (the disposable kind I ALWAYS had on hand, primed & ready to go). I got down on the floor, took my time, checked every angle, turned on all the lights, set the camera to auto, squeezed the button, CLICK, reeereeereee, wind wind wind, and DONE.
Dad just laughed. Mom shook her head and told me to clean it, the bottle, floor, & fridge. My brother said, "DAD MURDERED THE CATSUP".
If you made it to the end here please let me know in the comments below, I will reward loyalty.