Personal Creativity Workshop at O'Hanlon Center for the Arts

Cayan Robertson's workshop last Saturday was a lot of fun. We started with looking at books by my favorite colorist, Joseph Itten, and the exhibit book of the Amish Quilts shown at the De Young Museum recently. Cayan gave each of us a few pieces of paper, and with Cray-Pas, we were asked to fill the page with our favorite colors, building off of Itten's exercises in his book. Cayan took the exercise one step further and asked us to fill the second page with colors we didn't like, even hate. I tried with all my might to find combinations of color that looked putrid and ugly, but in the end, my "ugly" drawing was more interesting and beautiful than the one with my favorite colors. Several others had a similar experience. We talked about why this might be. I thought it was because I used more tones and values in my "ugly" painting, drawing on what I learned in Katrina Wagner's color theory class at the College of Marin. I'll let you be the judge of what appeals to you more.