The Color Wheel, An Artists Guide to life full of lessons

The Color Wheel

An artists guide to a life full of lessons

Artists have choices. Life is full of choices.

When an artist decides what to create, she looks at the tools she has and makes several choices, many conscious, many unconscious.

The color wheel is one example of what an artist uses to create drama.

The color wheel shows how colors blend. For example, Red, Blue and Yellow are called primary colors because from those three colors you can create any color on the Color Wheel. But mixed with color opposite them they create drama and contrast.

For example, Red and Yellow mixes to make Orange, yellow and blue mixes to make green, blue and red mixes to make purple.

But Red and Green, side by side, makes the contrast and drama of Christmas come to life. Blue and Red, side by side, makes the contrast and drama of patriotism come to life. Orange and purple (black), side by side, makes the contrast and drama of Halloween come to life.

Add either White or Black to any color and the intensity changes, the color pulls to the foreground or fades into the background.

Life, itself, is full of drama, at least life lived on the plane of the manifest is full of drama. Relationships, interactions, reactions, arguments, boundaries, and all of the complications of one manifest object meeting another. What I mean by manifest is what exists, is seen or waits to be seen on the realm of the physical.

Since all of us live in the manifest (physical) world, we rub up against each other, blend, repel, approach, avoid, attachment or opposition.

An older man I met in my travels in India once told me, "In the manifest World, we only have three choices. We can take what is given and use it to feed ourselves, we can aggressively try to get more than what is given and be on fire, or we can decide we can't get what we need and starve ourselves to death."

So, in a manifest life we move in and out of these three positions.

Fight, Fly, Fold.

Some people believe meditation takes you to a place where you have a fourth option, to escape the manifest world by living with a higher level of consciousness, in your heart, from your "purusha," outside of the drama, in your higher self, into prayer, into the future of heaven. But is that not the same as FLY??

You escape your physical condition into a space of safety and balance.

The way I use meditation is to be conscious and aware wherever I am.

If I am in “fight,” I watch myself fighting a battle for my existence, my right to be physical, my right to have been born.

If I am in “Fly,” I watch myself moving away from drama, pulling into myself, becoming selfish, preserving my ego.

If I am “Fold,” I watch myself give up my position, give up my ego and become who I need to be, surrender to the drama.

I was on a boat near Long Beach looking for whales when about fifty porpoise began to swim with us along side of the boat. They were so near to me, I could almost touch them. Our tour guide said "porpoise are different from most sea creatures because they are conscious breathers." I said "I am a conscious breather, too."

I am more WELL when life is a blend of consciousness, meditation and surrender, when there is a balance among these three positions, I tend to stay healthy.

I am starting to value relationships based on the ability of the OTHER to move around in these three areas, watch themselves, take responsibility for themselves, own their positions and be firmly grounded in LOVE while moving around from one position to another.

I am valuing art in the same way.