Code Red

In 2002 I was determined to do a series of eight paintings that would hang in a office building corridor that faced Poydras Avenue in downtown New Orleans. I bought eight Monet gallery wrap canvases. First I drew grids on four of them. Then I proceeded to paint in colors.

At the beginning of 2002 I became obsessed with the color orange. It came about because of a coincidental design used by both the film “Orange County” and the logo for the National Art Education Association in Miami. Both included circular orange slices. I then picked out a grouping of colors that had a Mexican feel, if you will. That was how the origin of the colors on the first canvas I started.

I then gave the other colors a chance to be predominant on the other canvases. Along the way I made adjustments for the less predominant colors. But then I hit a brick wall. What do I do with the grid to make it more interesting? At first I tried having light come through the shapes. On another canvas I had abstract splatters shooting up. Unhappy with those choices, I painted the triangles solid colors again.

Then I had an “aha moment.” I added dots to the paintings. My first objective was to soften the triangles. The dots were on the raw side – kind of sloppy. I created outer bars with a design sandwiched inbetween. The first one to click, was this one below, “Code Red.”

So why the name “Code Red?” Well, at the time I was working on these paintings, there was still the initial post 9/11 hysteria. The terror-alert level system was introduced with its color-coded levels of terror. Also, I was interested in the fact that there was paranoia about what might be hidden in visual images being sent around in e-mail. But I guess the biggest factor was my mother’s prognosis at the time. Her breast cancer had spread to her spine. My sister and I were put on heightened alert during this period – April through October.

acrylic on canvas, 22″ x 28″