The Persistence of Color
I have always found the obsession with vibrant color to be a bit of a distraction. It feels like a loud voice in a quiet room, demanding attention before it has anything of substance to say. My instinct is to distrust anything that relies on a sudden, sharp contrast to make its point. It feels like a shortcut, a way to bypass the intellect and go straight for a cheap, sensory thrill. I spent a long time convincing myself that if I looked past the saturation, I would find nothing but a hollow subject. But the longer I sat with the idea of this particular shade, the more I realized that my resistance was just a defense mechanism against being moved by something so simple. There is a quiet, stubborn authority in a single point of intensity that refuses to apologize for its own existence. It doesn’t ask for permission to be seen; it just is. And eventually, the argument against it loses its steam.
Jose Juniel Rivera-Negron has taken this beautiful image titled Red in Yellow. It captures that exact, stubborn intensity I was trying so hard to ignore. Does it change the way you look at the quiet corners of your own backyard?
