Collection Project Elizabeth O'Toole

Elizabeth O’Toole

Professor Cindy Rehm

Advanced Drawing 

11 March 2020

A Collection of Green: And what does it mean?

            When embarking upon this project, my mind went to one place: color. I kept trying time and time again to stray from what I felt was too familiar or ordinary, but I kept coming back to the same desire to investigate collections of color. This further put me on the path towards questioning, what about color? What is it about a varying collection of dissimilar, yet unified items that I am so drawn to? And upon giving the collection more thought, I couldn’t escape the desire to create a collection of green. Now when I think about typical childhood collections, my mind usually goes to objects like dolls or marbles, maybe even baseball cards or bracelets, but approaching this topic from a young adult’s perspective, my mind went somewhere else. What was it about the color green that I was so intently focused on investigating. I think it wasn’t until some time passed and my collection began growing that I started realizing that I wasn’t just in search of a color, but a feeling, an idea, a statement.

            I wanted to explore green because I wanted to understand how it made me feel and how it is typically used and felt by others. Narrowing in on items and objects that are green made me realize what color can feel like and in a greater sense, what it can stand for. When we think about certain colors, we might instantly tie them to ideas. Pink, for example, is often associated with womanhood, softness, femininity, flowers, etc. Whether or not we choose, years and years of history, art, and advertising have contributed greatly to the ways we see and interpret color.

            I chose to collect green items, because there is a certain degree of ambiguity that comes along with green. At its most basic surface interpretation, when we see green we think of trees, nature, maybe we think, “GO” like a green traffic light, or jealousy; maybe even money or greed. But what I began to discover was that for me, it represented much more complexity. When I started collecting items, certain themes and ideas became apparent: contradiction, growth, and artificiality. Now I do not mean to say that these are the ultimate three or sole associations, but merely the concepts I wish to develop through this collection. Above all, I want to call to light the duality between real and artificial. When I think about green, and I look at my collection of items, I cannot help but think about certain opposing forces. Real versus artificial. Organic versus inorganic. Growth versus death. Natural versus chemical. Beauty versus utility. These among other ideas can be seen through the conflicting items present in my collection. As I kept searching for items that best fit, I noticed the way green is used to express certain ideas. It is used on the packaging of cleaning materials, kitchen supplies, and advertisements, often commanding the idea of growth, strength, and cleanliness. It takes on a certain commanding presence, but without the same volume or intensity of bolder colors like red or even black. Although it represents that which is natural and organic, it is often exploited to trick viewers and consumers into seeing the artificial and false in that same light. And while it is often tied to positive connotations of growth and action, it can also trace back to ideas of jealousy and falsehoods depending on the context and the viewer. Through this collection, I hope to share these ideas and contradictions associated with the color, green. By including fresh produce next to tools and chemicals, along with both plants and plastics, I hope to make known or at least make viewers take a second to reflect on feeling green and what colors mean to them.