Redeeming Red

This is the body of work I have created during my spring residency at Free Columbia where I spent my time exploring the color red. As you will see, this project has not resulted in a series of all-red paintings, rather the works represent snapshots of my soul journey with this terrifying and beautiful color.

“The main theme that arose out of this project was the human yearning to love. To bring all that is broken and fragmented into wholeness. Recognizing and acknowledging human fallibility and seeking unceasingly to connect with the good and true — with the Divine.”

I came to this project through an encounter I had with red while painting in a workshop at the start of the residency. I was struck by its intensity, and felt both a strong attraction and aversion to it. This got me curious because I didn’t (and still don’t) have such a strong emotional response to other colors. I started my research by exploring the associations I and others have with red…

Red is associated with extremes: anger, wrath, fury, passion, love, provocation, blood, impulsivity, explosivity, rage, power, revolution, fire, lawlessness… All extremes that tend to fall out of our general comfort zone. Through conversation and meditation I came to the conclusion that this discomfort is due to their connection to will, desire, and action – many times bound up in unconscious instincts. Each can be a powerful catalyst for change, but also a hurtful and destructive force. Parallels can be drawn to the fire element – warmth and light give life, yet a fire untamed destroys it. The image of the phoenix arises, ascending from the ashes of destruction. Through these initial musings, many questions arose…

Does the old have to burn for something truly new to be born? 

How can power and intensity be harnessed productively and generatively? 

How does one ensure that the ‘lower-self’ or ‘ego-driven’ aspects don’t take the reins? 

Do we as a culture avoid these ‘red’ feelings because we want to be good people?

Does that make us blind to festering boils that accumulate under the surface? 

If our willpower is bound up in fear of its destructive potential, how can it be channeled for good?

The main theme that arose out of these questions was the human yearning to love. To bring all that is broken and fragmented into wholeness. Recognizing and acknowledging human fallibility and seeking unceasingly to connect with the good and true — with the Divine. As this chapter of exploring red and my residency draw to a close, my conclusion is that red teaches us to pray. When truly faced with the horrors human beings are capable of unleashing, and even with the lesser discomforts of one’s own lower self, there is nothing to do but to turn to a higher power. Prayer brings the humility necessary to surrender the inflamed ego and untethered, destructive passions. Awareness of these untransformed aspects of humanity can lead to a genuine striving to unite one’s own will with that of God. Ultimately Redeeming Red was a soul journey to deeper faith and wholeness, through artistic exploration.

Being a human being in the school of life is an incredibly exciting adventure, and I am so grateful to have been blessed with the opportunity to engage deeply with art as part of mine. The paintings and other works that have evolved out of this project have been deeply transformative for me. On May 30th, they will be exhibited here at Free Columbia. If you are reading this, it is because I wanted to share this journey with you and give you the opportunity to reserve work prior to my show.