"Too many things to do, not enough dimes." -- OBS
THE BLANK CANVAS. It is a pretty, perfect thing. Decide to add something to it, you will most likely ruin it and it will just become garbage. You can ball it up, toss it in a dark can, and on Tuesday some men will come by and take it a way forever. Even out of your mind. But, there’s always the chance you could enhance it. You could add a mark, a line, a squiggle. A word, a story. Basically you can put imagination on display. What we come to realize is that all that we imagine is not beautiful. We start to think of our thoughts like trash. We maybe start to wonder where we’re going with this shit, man.
But, I would say this: That is the reason we have trash cans. To get rid of that trash. And, some people turn trash into art. How about that? Here’s where I feel I’m at right now: I’m filling pages. I’m marking up that perfect white piece of paper with almost anything I can. Sometimes I draw one line and I look at it. I immediately don’t like it, but I try for a second at least to defend it. I wonder if I can fix it. Ultimately, I might end up shaking my head, I’ll roll that up, squeeze that into a ball, light it on fire, throw the burning ball into the fireplace, add some logs to it and heat the house for the night. But, most of the time I’m making what I can and leaving it around. Maybe I’ll check it out later, come around to it again. Maybe it’ll just sit there. Forever.
If I leave too much of that trash floating around, eventually I’m going to have to clean up. That’s some extra work that I have to be prepared for. It’s gotta be expected. Cleaning house. It’s really the case everywhere. You gotta clean house. Constantly. You want to work? You better be able to keep the place clean? You wanna cook? Clean off that countertop. You wanna live. . .CLEAN!
This is a messy job. I’m just saying everything kind of is. In this line of work it could be said that the greater the mess, the more enlightening the discovery. What does that mean? I would say: Llllllllll. . .the more you put out there, the more you can see what there is. If you are painting and you have ten colors in a box and you only break out 3 of those, you’ll only be able to do a limited amount of things compared to the options you would have with all 10. Actually, with 3 you may still be able to do the exact same amount assuming you grabbed Blue, Yellow, and Red. You can really make almost every color with those three. White though. White is a good paint to have at you disposal. If I had to choose three I would say: Red, White and. . .choosing three is a tough one. I...would...have...to...say: Blue. Patriotic, I know. For an American. If you were in Europe or something and you said ‘Red, White, and Blue’ to a native they would say, “Yeah, very patriotic, for an American.” I picked blue because it seems as if that represents us. Our blood pumping through us is blue and red. . .right? Actually, that is just the cartoon drawing of blood going through our circulatory system. It’s blue then it enters the lungs and it turns red and continues on it’s journey. But, it’s really not two colors. It’s too shades of red! A more maroonish red and a brighter red red. I suppose that you add some blue to red and you can get to maroon. But, still, it’s red and I think that illustration we saw as elementary school students tricked me into picking blue. I’m going to go back and reselect because I’ve still got a minute on the clock and I’ve never locked it in. Yellow would be alright because you could make all kinds of shades of orange light to dark and get into some sunrise/sunset situations which worked great for any fans of The Linklat - Richard Linklater. But...I don’t love Yellow. Green? Ehhh. Black and Blue. I think that’s the real battle. How fitting is that? Black and Blue fighting it out for the final seat on the throne. You can create some sharp imagery with Red, White and Black. If you like contrast, and I’m a pretty big supporter, you can get some emotions across with that pairing. Violence, anger, pain, fear. . .love? But, ultimately, you can make black with enough red and blue so I’ll have to pick Blue. Locked in.
And I may not have proved that the United States of America is the greatest nation in the world, but as far as picking colors for it’s representative flag, they obviously hit a homerun.