Douglas Witmer
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Friday, August 05, 2005
split second with orange
(This is a work on paper compeleted in Michigan. Sorry about the 3/4 view...I cropped it from a photo of a larger grouping.)
We have a little Chinatown here in Philadelphia. Yesterday I was cutting through, taking a shortcut across town while running errands. I assume Philadelphia's Chinatown is typical of most--lots of busy signage, throngs of people, double-parked cars, unidentifiable animal flesh in the shop windows. Suddenly half a block down, a levitating billowing cloud of the deepest most beautiful orange emerged from the shadows around a corner. I mean it was a complete retinal jolt, and took me a moment to realize the group of 6 or 7 Buddhist monks just walking in their orange robes, barefoot and nonchalantly, down the scorching street.
5.8.05 
2 Comments:
"Sorry about the 3/4 view..."
There is no way that a jpeg viewed through a browser is going to really show a painting, but we keep pretending it will. The 3/4 view brings the painting to life in a way that a straight-on shot never will. This is an installation view, which is valuable. Otherwise, how can one fully see that curling lower right corner, the deckle edges, the shadow? This kind of view improves the possiblity of seeing what kind of space this painting is making.
Nice about the orange.
By 
chrisashley, at
8/05/2005
That is a great story about color. It brings to mind an experience I had with color a few years ago...while driving down a country road, an exquisite shard of blue - lapis lazuli - lighted in front of me, and then just as quickly flew away. It was an indigo bunting; and that experience has been seared into my brain since then...largely because of the intense color.
By 
GIERSCHICK, at
8/05/2005