Studies of red and blue again...

This So I have created two studies. One of red in a shadow box frame and one of blue as a composition made on foam board. I am watching each one everyday to see their change in color. They both contain artificial and natural elements and I am curious to see how they decay. 

Day one: 

Day two: 

Day three:

This should be interesting. I am also working on making another corporate logo background but with as many as I can find within one color. This is hard to do. It's coming along though. If you have any information about artificial and natural and what the two mean to you, please let me know! I am thinking about using a digital reference for say the color orange and then trying to match that color in both the artificial and natural world to make almost like a triptych, I am still trying to figure out to do this though.....not that tech savy. In the menatime I have picked up some paint swatches to play with this idea and see if I can match the color elsewhere. Of course I'm going to look like a fool at the store holding paint swatches up to food or labels but that's all part of the fun! 

Think I can match any of these????? I will also be looking at getting both natural and artificial materials like carpet, Duran wrap, wrapping paper, construction paper etc and making a collage with a square then a square made of food or flowes, something natural. Simple. Elegant. That's on this weeks agenda!  But for now I must get back to my still life reading and research on this matter. :) enjoy! 

Studies.

Check out my Instagram, Twitter, and tumblr. Here are some images I'm studying. 

All studies taken with my iPhone. Just thinking and testing color ideas out. Exhausting. The thoughts are if you can intertwine both artificial and organic color could we actually tell what's real and what's not. What kind of world do we live in? Another thought of how to tackle the food dilemma and deception we face today. 

Red and blue tests

Some tests from my recent study. Trying to incorporate decay back into the work. 

Robin Antar

http://www.rantar.com/realism/food/pages/foodheinz.html

Interesting….

Still Life Set Up

What the hell and I doing here? I have set up a couple still lives for red an blue. I went crazy looking for things at the store to resemble these generic colors we have come to recognize. I am waiting on a history of still life book to come in the mail so I can understand them better. This picture is a terrible image but it send the idea of what I am looking at….. I don't know at this point if its alight stepping away from the simple images I was making. I have thought a lot about the square too and am thinking about relating the shape of the image to the emotional tie to that specific color. The goal would be in this images, which I might need a table cloth as well, is to make the background blurred so that the logos are not completely recognizable and I wanted to show the food on a symbolic pedestal, which is not shown here, to give it more hierarchy in the image. Maybe I am going crazy here and all this reading about color theory is making my brain and soul want to bleed colors but I am still sticking within the idea of the still life, color, food. Just having a complex on how saturated it should be, should the corporate world be brought into it, and how many layers do I need to prove a point? This is play……and I think at this time if there is something I am good at, thats it! Cross your fingers! I will set up some lights tomorrow and take better digital images before I go onto film. I would like to put together a couple ideas before I shoot any film yet. 

Questions

Someone once asked me....how did coca-cola get to own that red? I don't know that I have the answer but I do know that they are not the only business who owns that color for their product. So who owns it? Anyone? How do we relate to this color now after having been brainwashed by marketing and branding for all these years? Do they even make clothes this particular color? These answers are not quickly answered. If we were not such influential people this would of never occurred. How do we break from this? What if Oreos were sold in a yellow package? Would they still be as good and as popular? 

Packaged Foods Will Kill Us.

So I am investigating red again. This time hands on! I went to the store the other day and walked through only to find items that are packaged in red. This was a really terrifying experience for me because I do not ever walk through the center aisles of the grocery store, let alone even really go to it anymore! I felt like I was searching for something in particular but was overwhelmed by the choices. I ended up with eight products, all packaged and some in double packaging with bags inside. Overall four boxes, six bags and one pouch and one can. All these items were taken out of their package and placed into a bowl. This is what it looks like.

powder after powder and a whole bunch of oranges and yellows that are not "real" colors for food which means most likely they all contain some kind of dye. That leads me to my next post, ingredients. 

Here is a list from all eight products:

SunMaid Figs

dried figs

potassium sorbate

Cheez-It

Enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin)

vegetable oil

soybean oil

palm oil

white cheddar and cheddar cheese

salt

whey

maltodextrin

monosodium gluamate

leavening (yeast and baking soda)

whey protein concentrate

butter

natural and artificial flavors

lactic acid

calcium lactate

citric acid

disodium phosphate

turmeric extract for color

annatto extract for color

soy lecithin

Hamburger Helper

enriched macaroni

corn starch

salt

modified whey

sugar

ricotta cheese dried

yeast extract 

natural flavors

partially hydrogenated soybean oil

monoglycerides

yellow 5 and 6

yellow lakes 5 and 6

red 40 lake

whey

lactic acid

calcium lactate

blue cheese dried

enzyme modified blue cheese

enzyme modified cheddar cheese 

silicon dioxide

sodium phosphate 

soy lecithin

tocopherols

BHA

Campbells Tomato Rice Soup

tomato puree

water

rice

high fructose corn syrup

wheat flour

diced tomatoes in tomato juice

sugar

salt

vegetable oil

citric acid

enzyme modified cheddar cheese

cheddar cheese

water

disodium phosphate

enzymes

flavoring

ascorbic acid

beta carotene for color

McCormick Brown Gravy

enriched wheat flour

wheat starch

salt

beef fat

hydrolyzed soy

wheat protein

corn protein

onion

caramel color

corn syrup solids

sodium caseinate

spices

garlic

natural flavor

disodium inosinate

guanylate

extractives of paprika

yeast extract

Rice a Roni Rice Pilaf

parboiled long grain rice

wheat flour

salt

hydrolyzed soy protein

natural flavors 

torula yeast

monosodium glutamate

onions

hydrolyzed corn protein

chicken broth

hydrolyzed corn gluten

chicken fat

chicken dried

tumeric spice which imparts color

disodium inosinate

disodium guanylate

spices

garlic

chives

niacin

ferric orthophosphate

ferrous sulfate

thiamin mononitrate

tumeric extract

folic acid

riboflavin

Lipton Matzo Ball Soup Mix

matzo meal 

salt

monodosium glutamate

potato starch

sugar

palm stearin

leaving

onion powder

spices

garlic powder

tumeric for color

natural and artificial flavors

fractionated palm oil

SunChips Garden Veg

whole corn

sunflower and canola oil

whole wheat

brown rice flour

whole oat flour 

sugar

tomato powder

salt 

natural flavors

maltodextrin

cheddar cheese

dextrose

buttermilk

onion powder

whey 

yeast extract

romano cheese

whey protein concentrate

corn oil

spices

citric acid

paprika extracts 

lactic acid

IM OFFICIALLY GROSSED OUT!

Not that I eat this food anyways but man is this disgusting. I am on the search now for more information about these products. 

Some research: 

Is it true there very well could be no difference to natural and artificial flavoring?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-the-difference-be-2002-07-29/

I do not like soy. Never been a soy consumer. 

http://authoritynutrition.com/is-soy-bad-for-you-or-good/

Yay for FDA! 

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm?fr=101.22

I thought the use of the word spice was pretty vague. But here is a list provided by the fine FDA for our health. 

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfCFR/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=182.10

Well, this might be worth the watch. Just change your diet dont buy the product. haha. 

http://keybiotic.com/video_toon_main22.php?v1=15&adN=revC

Ok. Headed back to sewing and cutting and reading. I dont know where I am going with this and maybe my activist side is coming back into the work but....the research is needed. It will lead me somewhere. One reading the resonated with me today was the reading from Scientific America "...if a consumer purchases an apple beverage that contains an artificial flavor, she will ingest the same primary chemicals that she would take in if she had chosen a naturally flavored apple beverage."

Know your food. Watch that video. Tell next time because I am sure you all hate me now. 

Green

This is what I found to be green..... Ill be heading to the store later to pick up a couple products from each of the colors to then rip, tear, cut them into select pieces to then sew them together to make yet another square patter potential for the background.