Focus on:
Blue Broom
Oil painting, pyrography and gold leaf on OSB wood
cm 40x60 inch 15.7x23.6
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I am pleaseded to announce that Ginestra Azzurra has joined Enlightening Mind, the art collection dedicated to all aspects of vision within the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Florence.
https://www.ottica.unifi.it/vp-172-enlighting-mind.html#
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Ginestra Azzurra is part of the Colorblindness Creativity Project (see page here).
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Integration is the key word.
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There are over 300 million colorblind people in the world (a much underestimated quantity).
The vast majority of these are Deuteranope or Protanope, i.e., with reduced or absent sensitivity to red and green, in fact it is a vision with a different color scale than those with commonly trichromatic vision.
Color blindness is not a problem to be solved, but a territory to be explored, integrated and an inexhaustible source of inspiration.
Brooms in nature are yellow, so a color-blind Deuteran or Protan perceives them as yellow as much as those with common vision.
The Colorblind Botany Collection consists of works that represent the plant world not only as colorblind people see it but also of new creations, such as The Blue Broom, that draw inspiration and strength from colorblindness.
In this painting, color is perceived in the same way by both those who are deuteran or protan color-blind and those who are not, nullifying the differences between the visions.
In The Blue Broom various elements complement and enhance each other.
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In the use of Oil Painting there is a reminder of the ancient works of Giovanna Garzoni and Jacopo Ligozzi in which art is also a vehicle for scientific information.
The irregularities of the wood tear the color in some areas of the painting, but the eye does not perceive them in the overall view, it detects them only when it dwells on the details.
The texture of the wood and the pyrograph-etched contours introduce textural and tactile elements into the work; they are also a reminder of graphic signs and patterns, which are extremely useful tools for visual design that integrates color-blind vision. It is important to note that color-blind people have a better vision of details and nuances than those with ordinary vision.
A small perceptual deception is provided by the use of chiaroscuro that gives three-dimensionality to the flower, an effect augmented by the introduction of a darker brown false frame-the broom stem appears to pass behind it while the flowers appear to emerge above it.
The effect of three levels of depth is created: the flower appearing to emerge in the foreground, the brown frame and further back still the background.
In the stem, the gold leaf introduces into the vision the theme of both temporal and spatial mutability: The luminous effect of gold varies greatly both as the light changes during the day and as the viewer's point of view shifts.
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