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Our Mom v.s. My Mom

In Korean, mom is our mom, not my mom. Korean language reflects collectivist culture, while English reflects individualist culture. 

한국말로 엄마는, 내 엄마가 아니라 우리 엄마다. 한국어는 집단주위 문화를 영어는 개인주위 문화를 반영한다. 

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What I think, 내가 생각하는 것,  What I want to say, 내가 말하고 싶어 하는 것,  What I believe I say, 내가 말하고 있다고 믿는 것,  What I say, 내가 말하는 것,  What you want to hear, 그대가 듣고 싶어 하는 것,  What you believe you hear, 그대가 듣고 있다고 믿는 것  What you hear, 그대가 듣는 것  What you want to comprehend, 그대가 이해하고 싶어 하는 것 What you believe you comprehend, 그대가 이해하고 있다고 믿는 것 What you comprehend, 그대가 이해하는 것,  Because there are ten possibilities   이렇게 열가지 가능성이  Between my thought and your comprehension 내 생각과 그대의 이해 사이에 있기에 There's difficulty in our communication. 우리의 의사 소통에는 어려움이 있다 Nevertheless we must try. 그렇다 해도 우리는 시도를 해야 한다.

Entry 1: Attempt from Nouvelle Encyclopédie Du Savoir Relatif Et Absolu by Bernard Werber 제 1 장: 시도, 베르나르 베르베르의 상상력 사전 

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On Yellow Ochre

“What is your favorite color?” is a pretty popular question. I’ve encountered it multiple times during icebreaker sessions, online personality tests and various surveys. Sometimes friends ask me. In general, I avoid giving an answer. In the past, if I had to pick one, I usually drifted between blue and green. I might come up with a specific name of a shade, like “klein blue” or “sage green,” in attempts to pin down on a specific shade of blue or green. But to be honest, it’s a rather difficult question. Every color has its own interesting quality. Sometimes my mood affects my attraction to particular colors. I could have had a droopy gray day, so I might feel more inclined to choose pastel lavender purple or bright happy orange as my color. Moreover, what I like are the combinations of colors, rather than one color on its own. It’s the harmony of dark crimson red arranged with gold inlays and shades of grey and brown or the cobalt blue stitching on crisp white bedsheets that I enjoy. So yeah, it bothers me to simply say “blue!” to the question, “what’s your favorite color?” Such a simple answer doesn’t do justice to other colors that I equally admire. Colors are kind of like people. Like your close buddy, who was a stranger until you played Dance Dance Revolution together one night, you don’t get to realize the beauty of a seemingly dull rustic brown until it’s placed with bright pink, and only together they create a special sophisticated mood. It would be unfair to pick pink just because it stands out more than brown, when in reality it’s the brown and pink together that add the sophisticated quality. It’s the context of the colors and the visual pleasure risen from the context that I usually appreciate, not often the color itself playing solo.

Contrary to what’s expected from my paragraph-long-explanation on how it’s so difficult for me to pick a single favorite color, there’s one color I’m particularly fond of. A color I am rather emotionally attached. A color I would, without hesitation, call it my partner-in-crime. You guessed it right from the title of this post; it’s yellow ochre.

The ochres (ochre is an earthly pigment) appear commonly in old masters’ palettes ("in art history old master refers to any painter of skill who worked in Europe before about 1800" [Wikipedia] e.g. Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, etc.). Back then, the range of pigments painters could use was limited. Earthly pigments could easily be obtained from nature. And thank god! Earthly colors are super useful. Neutral shades of brown, red, and yellows come in handy when painting flesh and nature, which were popular subjects of paintings at the time. Old masters liked to create under-paintings in toned-down neutral shades of ochres that serve to be the foundation of the colors built upon them. They are also go-to colors to mix to tone down brighter colors. The ochres are irreplaceable essentials in painting.

When I paint, like the old masters, I like to start by toning my canvas, which is to paint a thin layer of neutral color on canvas as an under layer for my actual painting. And I tone my canvas with a neutral greenish gray color that’s a mix of a bit of black and yellow ochre. Unless I know I want a particular, e.g. red or blue, to show through in my actual painting, a neutral greenish gray color is a perfect tone to start with. It’s a nice neutral color that doesn’t interfere with the brighter colors that will be painted over it, but lays a middle tone to facilitate the creation of the darkest shade. 

Yellow ochre is also used when I’m building on my highlights that will give life and form to my figures. White mixed with speck of yellow ochre looks “brighter” than simple titanium white; the warmth of yellow ochre makes form look more expanded or accentuated than just plain white. The yellow counteracts the possible grayish contamination of the white as well. It also adds a warmer glow to the light.

This earthly yellow color also has a gold tone that’s actually quite beautiful on its own. On its own, it has an interesting dual quality; it’s cheerful and happy, while it could also been seen with maturity, depth, and calmness. Standard yellow (I’m talking about cadmium yellow hue) is such a bright and happy color. Yellow ochre still contains that happiness. The warmth of sun. But it also reminds me of the sadness of clown, the sadness under the brightly lit mask. I’m quite attracted to that duality.

P.S. I’d say something like html color code CFB615 is what I’d call yellow ochre. To see the color, this code can be Googled.