The Tangibility of Color and Memory

When we were children, or when we shared special moments with someone we loved, certain colors and images could become deeply embedded in our memories. A golden sunset, for example, or picking up a green glass bottle on a sunny day and watching the light swirl and glow through it, making everything around us appear strangely distorted and green. These simple experiences can leave special, endearing memories that stay with us long after the moment has passed.

The way colors are arranged can bring those memories back, reminding us of special times and moods buried deep within our thoughts.

I am now creating paintings with a range of colors to do just that—to explore how color can evoke a memory and give a fleeting moment a sense of tangibility.

Paintings that are mostly dark or dominated by black can feel solemn, mysterious, and piercing, while paintings created with light, transparent colors can feel airy, spacious, and ethereal. I have always enjoyed working with a wide range of colors and exploring how composition and color arrangements can help communicate a particular mood in my work.

For a while, I am taking a break from painting my larger series and focusing instead on smaller, quickly completed paintings with a limited palette. I want to see whether this approach will help me convey moments and feelings in a different way.

I know many artists, both past and present, have worked this way. But for me, there is also something deeply personal about my love of color. I remember when I was a child and my mother bought me a box of Crayola crayons filled with different colors and variations. Seeing all those colors excited me like a hungry person seeing a meal. I couldn't wait to draw with them on my drawing pad—or even on brown paper grocery bags that I would cut up and turn into drawing paper.

That excitement has never really left me.

Even now, I still love seeing many colors come together. Perhaps that is because color is more than something we see. It can carry the feeling of a place, the atmosphere of a moment, and the memory of something we experienced long ago. Through these smaller paintings, I want to explore that connection—to see if color can make a fleeting memory feel tangible once again.