Color

Don Cherry, Aluminum grey/Mori Cherry Turquoise blue

Most paintings produced in the top 100 series now have a solid background color. The choice for each color, naturally, is of great concern. At first the colors were decided by the colors used within the two portraits, complementary to the portraits, or by some related symbolism. Later they became independent, applied before the portraits were painted. Sometimes, as I did with the portraits in this post, I used a random color generator. The first time I used it was last year in a portrait of John Cage, who uses chance operations in composition.There are two programs that I use. The first has about 600 colors the second millions of colors. The 600 of the first one consist of colors that are named. There are about 600 named colors. Perhaps the generator is linked to commercial interests, such as paint manufacturers. When I select two colors from this generator they always appear to go together well. This is nice but it questions the randomness of the selection processes. An advantage of this generator over the other one is that its colors tend to be more vibrant. (Vibrant colors are named more often than dull or dirty colors.) The generator that has millions of colors (the eye can distinguish millions of colors) is more random. Every color is made from a random percentage number of the three RGB primaries, red, green, and blue. The resulting color (nearly) always has all three values represented, so that no color is a true color. The color is always poop, but there's warm poop and cool poop. When I materialize the computer color in paint, I do not go by the levels. This would be pointless anyway because green is not a primary paint color. Colors of light are additive, whereas paint colors reductive. But even if I were to convert RGB into CMYK the same problems persist. I don't work with cyan or magenta, I can make these colors putting together others. There really aren't any primary colors in paint, any color can be made using other colors. Certain pigments are hard to recreate though, phthalo or gold for example, but I have yet to come across any difficulty copying any of the random colors in paint. The colors in the above painting of Don and Moki Cherry are aluminum grey and turquoise blue. The photo reproduction doesn't do these named colors any justice. Don Cherry is one of a handful musicians to appear multiple times in this year's top 100. The colors behind Giampiero Pramaggiore and Naná Vasconcelos, collaborators with the Cherrys in the Organic Music Theatre, are pearl mouse grey and graphite black.

Giampiero Pramaggiore/Naná Vasconcelos

Don Cherry started the Organic Music Theater during an extended stay in Sweden. He married Moki Karlsson and they recorded the album Organic Music Society with a score of mostly local musicians. Naná Vasconcelos, the Brazilian percussionist was with him and stayed with him through various tours and albums. When Organic Music toured France and Italy, Vaconcelos and both Cherrys were accompanied by the Italian guitarist Giampiero Pramaggiore. Both tracks by the Organic Music Theater in the Top 100 are from from a video recorded by RAI, the Italian national broadcast station. The Organic Music Theater was truly organic (free and democratic) and well ahead of its time. Musicians contributed whatever they were associated with. The Organic Music Theater blended any traditions in the world of sound they'd come across. A third appearance by Cherry in the Top 100, be it a minor contribution, is behind his stepdaughter Neneh Cherry during a videotaped concert by her band Rip, Rig & Panic. The other singer in Rip, Rig & Panic seen in the video is Andi Oliver, today a celebrity chef and Neneh's longtime friend.

Neneh Cherry/Andi Oliver (Rip, Rig & Panic)