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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Twelve: Using color to express ideas > Seeing red, Civic Center Plaza, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2010
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12-MAY-2010

Seeing red, Civic Center Plaza, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2010

One of the most important works of public art within the Scottsdale Civic Center Plaza is Robert Indiana’s popular “Love” sculpture. I have often photographed it with my tutorial students, and always related its oversized letters to some kind of human behavior. (See http://www.pbase.com/image/23370265 ) The most powerful aspect of this sculpture is its brilliant primary color: red. On my most recent visit with a tutorial student, we were fortunate to find a man repainting the sculpture. I include only the upper portions of the letters “L” and “O” here, and link the brilliant red coloration to a roller loaded with red paint that hangs in mid-air after a decisive thrust. It is the nature of color itself, particularly primary colors such as red and blue, that makes the image work. Without this man’s red roller, frozen in time as it is raised against the deep blue sky, this image could not function as expression.

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Phil Douglis16-May-2010 23:54
Thanks, Rose. As I remarked to my tutorial student while we were making our photos of this man, the line between a commercial painter and an "art" painter is a thin one if you define art in terms of the passion an artist brings to his or her work, and the passion an audience brings to looking at the result. You so beautifully articulate that point in your comment.
sunlightpix16-May-2010 20:26
Career counsellors often advise people to "Do what you love." Sculpture, painter, photographer; each has made a "labor of love". Red often expresses passion and each is passionate about their art. Spectacular!
Phil Douglis16-May-2010 18:24
Claudia: teasing the sky indeed -- a flick of the roller makes the image come to life for us. Tim: I liked the other primary color in this image as well -- the blue fills the background and connects to the sculpture because the interior of the letters are indeed colored blue as well. We don't need to see all four letters to understand what he is painting here. Our imaginations go into gear from just a glance at the image, and the caption will supply context as well.
Tim May16-May-2010 16:58
We only need to see a portion of this sculpture to know what is it. Sort of like only including part of the flag - our mind fills in the rest. I resonate with the play of color here - the drama of the patch of blue in the part of the letters we see and the brilliant red in the blue of the sky.
BleuEvanescence16-May-2010 13:41
Ahhhh, again, teaching us to be patient and wait...like the cat ;))
Indeed, if not that roller teasing the sky, and the painter holding it, there would not be at all an expression...
Phil Douglis15-May-2010 19:39
I shot this painter over and over until I could catch the red roller in the air to make my point about the nature and purpose of the work itself.
Carol E Sandgren15-May-2010 18:48
I love this one! We rarely think of these iconic sculptures as needing any maintenance such as a paint job but here you really use it to your advantage to get the point across. That small red roller full of paint mid-air drives the entire image.
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