PEP TALK 6: Complements Pep Talk

Published by Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer, Complements PEP TALK takes the form of a box of paints. Each box contains a set of six glass vials of primary and secondary colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Each color has been mixed by an artist in the paint (s)he uses in her/his studio practice. This issue is partly about conservation and time-capsulation. The artists were asked to mix their 'favorite' version of the color they contributed, whatever 'favorite' might mean--the 'best'?--in general or on that day. It is not an unridiculous prompt. Each color is presented here as a text. The three artists asked to mix one of the three primary colors in turn selected and invited another artist to mix her color's complement--the resulting spectrum spans a set of personal and communal, as well as chromatic relations emerging at this moment and in this place: Los Angeles, the beginning of 2014.

Red: Alex Olson
Orange: John McAllister
Yellow: Dianna Molzan
Green: Lesley Vance
Blue: Lisa Williamson
Purple: Christian Cummings

There are 48 boxes in this issue's edition. The cover of each is a unique, singular work adapted by one of the six artists using the color (s)he mixed for PEP TALK.

Red: The “best” red in my eyes is straight-up cadmium red light. It’s always visually gratifying. It leans slightly orange, is fairly opaque, and is so bright that it almost hurts to look at. It’s oddly versatile in that it can function in small doses as punctuation or command a whole field. Plus, it can sit alongside almost any color and work, enhancing the other color or complicating its reading. However, my “favorite” red, meaning the one I’m currently favoring the most in my paintings, is a shade that is barely visible as red. It’s a silvery grey tinted with cadmium red light, and I frequently use it for its optical qualities. I often place it next to other tones of grey so that it differentiates itself only after a few moments of looking. The more you look, the warmer and stronger it appears. Your eyes begin to adjust and after several seconds, it has gone from “grey” to “red.”