Friday March 14, 2008

Shades of Gray: Addendum

Rhododendron 'Ponticum Roseum II'
Click here to pop up the original full-color image

An Addendum to 'Black and White Thinking' in Shades of Gray
By 'shades of gray,' in my previous post, I'm thinking like a black-and-white photographer, whose images can actually display up to thousands of discrete shades of gray (including many variants of gray -- silver-toned, blue-toned, brown-toned, warm-toned, cold-toned, etc), selected from a technically infinite number between pure blacks and whites. I'm thinking of those "boring grays," as some may characterize the color gray, instead as the architecture of thoughts, feelings, ideas, and of course of works of art, not as a uniform color-that-is-no-color. In my work with clients, for example, I'm starting to see this architecture as the complex intersection of genetics, environment, experience, and soul that makes them who they truly are, the interplay of all these inheritances and forces beneath the more apparent "colors" of their appearance, social status, and immediate presentation. I'm just starting to think about this, but I believe it has wide application in the ways I function everywhere in my life, and most likely in the ways we all function.

Of course, that then makes me curious about the role in all these things that color plays. I think there is an equally complex and rich way to think about that, and that thinking about these things -- intensities and shades of color, varieties and shades of gray -- separately for a while will ultimately result in a richer understanding of how they work together to create a whole.

Any thoughts on this are both welcome and appreicated.

- David

Discussion:
'Black and White Thinking' in Shades of Gray
Art, Healing, and Transformation group
Flower Mandalas Project group

Request a flower mandala screensaver: Fifteen Flower Mandalas

© 2008, David J. Bookbinder

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Filed Under: black and white, mandalas, photography, shades of gray, thinking

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