This piece resonated deeply with me. The idea of grey as a space of wisdom, nuance, and the in-between is something I've often pondered. It's where we find empathy, where we learn to hold opposing truths, where we embrace the complexity of life. Your writing beautifully articulates this, and I'm left with a sense of quiet contemplation. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Alex. I think of grey as the contemplative hue, so I am pleased that you were left with a quiet sense of contemplation. As a colour, as a feeling, as a philosophical element, grey is spacious and generous enough to allow everything else to shine a little brighter. I love that about it.
Kateri, your writing (as well as your artwork) is exquisite as well as thought provoking. These particular pages made me look at my younger self when I needed to see/feel most everything in definitive terms of black or white……The grey in between would have been too scary, too uncomfortable, too out of my control . Now, fast forward to many decades , I have learned to feel more comfortable in that grey, in between space. The place where you might find balance and growth and wisdom. Where you can succeed, where you can fail. Where you can be brave and where you can be afraid. But above all of the push and pull of emotions, you have permission to feel the feelings and that ownership is a very freeing and subtle place for acknowledging one’s personal growth. I love that we can all be work’s in progress.
Thank you for this, Linda. I think your last sentence is so key: to be a work in progress. I think it might be exhausting to always be one extreme or the other. The subtle tones feel like a softer place to fall...and rest. 🩶
Kateri, Thanks so much for writing about gray. I was a dyer for 30 years and explored color as deeply as I could. I LOVED THE GRAYS. And now that I've retired and moved into two dimensional art, I think I SHOULD work in color, but I still really love the middle ground of charcoal and graphite. Now to the ink. Thank you.
The art you’ve shared here is lovely. The grey hues beautiful.
A wonderful subject to reflect on and write about. You never fail to draw me in and broaden my understanding of, well whatever topic you’re thinking about.
The walls in my condo I’ve painted “useful grey” and I love the way light changes the rooms appearance and mood. Each room is different and even within each of them day/night, cloudy/sunny, they seem to have a unique ability to be just subtle enough to always catch my breath. It’s uncanny how they seem to affect, or reflect, my energy and mood. As though they are embracing me.
Is that the real colour name? Useful Grey? I love that. Wow. And I love grey walls... for exactly how you described them! They are every shifting, aren't they? Like a sunrise, or a mountain in the distance... never the same twice. Thank you so much, Judy.
Thank you, Kateri. I very much appreciate this timely essay (and the accompanying artwork). I recently wrote a song called "Light in the Darkness." It includes the line, "... we can learn to see the world in more than shades of gray." This metaphor wasn't meant to reject shades of gray. Rather, it was more about the light, the white, the splashes of color, the textures and nuisances, the complexities, the diversity instead of the linear gradation from black to white, the colorful grays, the moods, mysteries, and meanings that both grays and colors can express. It wasn't meant to exclude or reject or diminish shades of gray. Or maybe it was just a line in a song. www.vimeo.com/johnrobertwhitney/lightinthedarkness.
Thank you, John. I appreciate your song (and your talent) so much. I think it's really important to remember to seek the light in the darkness, but also to not despair if we mostly dwell somewhere along the spectrum in between. That's reality for most of us, I think, and it's really okay.
What lovely thoughts on grey and lovely art. Grey a color that doesn't get a lot of attention, Ooo so interesting about your next book cannot wait!
I find that grey is interesting. When I think, " Oh I love a warm grey!" that reminds me of summer stormy skies in the Midwest, then suddenly I see a cool grey and think of a Midwestern winter sky imminent with snow. Grey titanium has found its way into my main color palette. But normally I mix my browns, greys and blacks. What also comes to mind with "grey" is TEXTURE from graphite, charcoal, to granulation of hematite or Pbk11 watercolors.
I just recently did a class at the art store "Wet Paint" in St. Paul, MN with Jinjer Markley "Deep Dive into Color: Understanding Hue, Chroma and Value through Hands-on Practice" if you go to Wet Paint website under classes/events and see the class picture, you will see what I mean- the expanse of grey and at what point is it no longer grey?, this was a hands-on, in-person mixing class at the store to deeply understand mixing (she will be having an online one about color mixing which she also shares in the hands on class based on the color triangle also Markley's invention which helps artists mix a color based on any line that runs through the color you are trying to produce thus able to make a color based on colors that run along the lines through that color, very interesting!) Highly recommend. Especially, for grey lovers or muted tones. It gave me a greater appreciation of color and the expanses of greys and blacks, ones that you sometimes don't notice unless you hold the two colors of grey or black next to each other.
Then my thoughts turn to colorful greys: blue greys, green greys , purple greys, yellow greys, and red greys but again at what point do they become less grey? Grey holds mystery and mood. And finally to shadow and how picking the "right" grey for your shadows helps bring a painting to life or can ruin it. So very interested to read your next book. Hope it was okay to share about the class if not I will edit?
Oh that class sounds so much fun! One of my favourite exercises for my colour theory and mixing classes was to bring in a stack of paint chips in very nuanced colourful greys from the hardware and I would hand them out so my students could mix that exact colour three different times using different pigments. SO much fun to see how you can end up in many different ways! I think they are greys... and there are greyed colours. I love them all. THank you so much, Ari! So glad you are here.
This piece resonated deeply with me. The idea of grey as a space of wisdom, nuance, and the in-between is something I've often pondered. It's where we find empathy, where we learn to hold opposing truths, where we embrace the complexity of life. Your writing beautifully articulates this, and I'm left with a sense of quiet contemplation. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Alex. I think of grey as the contemplative hue, so I am pleased that you were left with a quiet sense of contemplation. As a colour, as a feeling, as a philosophical element, grey is spacious and generous enough to allow everything else to shine a little brighter. I love that about it.
Kateri, your writing (as well as your artwork) is exquisite as well as thought provoking. These particular pages made me look at my younger self when I needed to see/feel most everything in definitive terms of black or white……The grey in between would have been too scary, too uncomfortable, too out of my control . Now, fast forward to many decades , I have learned to feel more comfortable in that grey, in between space. The place where you might find balance and growth and wisdom. Where you can succeed, where you can fail. Where you can be brave and where you can be afraid. But above all of the push and pull of emotions, you have permission to feel the feelings and that ownership is a very freeing and subtle place for acknowledging one’s personal growth. I love that we can all be work’s in progress.
Thank you for this, Linda. I think your last sentence is so key: to be a work in progress. I think it might be exhausting to always be one extreme or the other. The subtle tones feel like a softer place to fall...and rest. 🩶
Kateri, Thanks so much for writing about gray. I was a dyer for 30 years and explored color as deeply as I could. I LOVED THE GRAYS. And now that I've retired and moved into two dimensional art, I think I SHOULD work in color, but I still really love the middle ground of charcoal and graphite. Now to the ink. Thank you.
Charcoal, graphite and ink all together! Now that's a rainbow :) Thank you so much, Nancy. I so appreciate you!
I love gray. I use it a lot in my work. Grays and browns are my go-to colors. I never really thought about why until I read this essay. 💕💕
I know this about you! I always loved how many of your pieces are so nuanced and greyed in hues. Thank you so much for being here, Sue.
ah, yes, browns too. I love the warmth especially with grey.
Oh Kateri
The art you’ve shared here is lovely. The grey hues beautiful.
A wonderful subject to reflect on and write about. You never fail to draw me in and broaden my understanding of, well whatever topic you’re thinking about.
The walls in my condo I’ve painted “useful grey” and I love the way light changes the rooms appearance and mood. Each room is different and even within each of them day/night, cloudy/sunny, they seem to have a unique ability to be just subtle enough to always catch my breath. It’s uncanny how they seem to affect, or reflect, my energy and mood. As though they are embracing me.
Is that the real colour name? Useful Grey? I love that. Wow. And I love grey walls... for exactly how you described them! They are every shifting, aren't they? Like a sunrise, or a mountain in the distance... never the same twice. Thank you so much, Judy.
Yes, the color name. Maybe, Pittsburgh paints?
Thank you, Kateri. I very much appreciate this timely essay (and the accompanying artwork). I recently wrote a song called "Light in the Darkness." It includes the line, "... we can learn to see the world in more than shades of gray." This metaphor wasn't meant to reject shades of gray. Rather, it was more about the light, the white, the splashes of color, the textures and nuisances, the complexities, the diversity instead of the linear gradation from black to white, the colorful grays, the moods, mysteries, and meanings that both grays and colors can express. It wasn't meant to exclude or reject or diminish shades of gray. Or maybe it was just a line in a song. www.vimeo.com/johnrobertwhitney/lightinthedarkness.
Thank you, John. I appreciate your song (and your talent) so much. I think it's really important to remember to seek the light in the darkness, but also to not despair if we mostly dwell somewhere along the spectrum in between. That's reality for most of us, I think, and it's really okay.
What lovely thoughts on grey and lovely art. Grey a color that doesn't get a lot of attention, Ooo so interesting about your next book cannot wait!
I find that grey is interesting. When I think, " Oh I love a warm grey!" that reminds me of summer stormy skies in the Midwest, then suddenly I see a cool grey and think of a Midwestern winter sky imminent with snow. Grey titanium has found its way into my main color palette. But normally I mix my browns, greys and blacks. What also comes to mind with "grey" is TEXTURE from graphite, charcoal, to granulation of hematite or Pbk11 watercolors.
I just recently did a class at the art store "Wet Paint" in St. Paul, MN with Jinjer Markley "Deep Dive into Color: Understanding Hue, Chroma and Value through Hands-on Practice" if you go to Wet Paint website under classes/events and see the class picture, you will see what I mean- the expanse of grey and at what point is it no longer grey?, this was a hands-on, in-person mixing class at the store to deeply understand mixing (she will be having an online one about color mixing which she also shares in the hands on class based on the color triangle also Markley's invention which helps artists mix a color based on any line that runs through the color you are trying to produce thus able to make a color based on colors that run along the lines through that color, very interesting!) Highly recommend. Especially, for grey lovers or muted tones. It gave me a greater appreciation of color and the expanses of greys and blacks, ones that you sometimes don't notice unless you hold the two colors of grey or black next to each other.
Then my thoughts turn to colorful greys: blue greys, green greys , purple greys, yellow greys, and red greys but again at what point do they become less grey? Grey holds mystery and mood. And finally to shadow and how picking the "right" grey for your shadows helps bring a painting to life or can ruin it. So very interested to read your next book. Hope it was okay to share about the class if not I will edit?
Oh that class sounds so much fun! One of my favourite exercises for my colour theory and mixing classes was to bring in a stack of paint chips in very nuanced colourful greys from the hardware and I would hand them out so my students could mix that exact colour three different times using different pigments. SO much fun to see how you can end up in many different ways! I think they are greys... and there are greyed colours. I love them all. THank you so much, Ari! So glad you are here.
I like that "greys and greyed colors"!