.y.e.l.l.o.w.

yesterday i was thinking all about yellow.

back in the art-school-day, one of my first painting professors causally/ironically mentioned that "yellow paintings don't sell". though i smile a little every time that sentence pops into my head, which it literally does each time i use any shade of yellow, i've never bothered to wonder if that thought on yellow was my professor's sole opinion/experience, or if maybe he had heard it somewhere.

google.

maybe the phrase was referencing the book "the mystery of making it"?, where the author, jack white, states, "there is one color that has always been difficult to sell. yellow." (for the record and for better and/or maybe worse, i stopped reading self-help books for artists after reading one given to me upon graduation from art school.  the advice in that book included the suggestion for the would be successful artist to "wear capes, preferably black or deep purple." this was to be done in general, but especially to openings. also of importance was that, if aiming for a successful career as a painter, the said painter should find & keep a wife.)

the other thing that i sometimes think about when thinking about yellow, is that book "the yellow wallpaper." yikes. 

and, from a long list of hero's, ben shahn: "how do you paint yellow wheat against a yellow sky? you paint it jet-black."

i like yellow: sun. lemons. champagne. butterflies. school buses. 14k. safety vests. sand. egg yolks. i paint with yellow often. i've never shied away from it, nor from any other color for that matter.

i got a 5gallon bucket of egg yolk yellow when initially choosing the colors to begin work on the wildebeest mural. but, after painting the majority of the wall mint green (mint green!), i've had cold feet on using the yellow for anything other than tinting up or down some blue or green or softly coloring some white. i've been second guessing it. 'til yesterday. there is a lot of square footage and it's not easy to physically erase quickly if it stinks. (see earlier post about fear of public painting failure!)

deep breath, very long extension pole, and some egg yolk yellow along with some fluro-yellow/water/poly mix...and i like it, at least i did at the end of the work day yesterday. fingers crossed i'm still into it when i head back!