Color of Kindness Project
(2012 - present)
Currently installed at the University of Iowa Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
The Color of Kindness project began in 2012 because I wanted to begin working with color again after a long hiatus, and I wished for more kindness in my life. It struck me I could integrate my “relational” art practices - my exploration of important social concerns in the presence of others - with something as traditional as painting. I chose to do this through the simple question of “What color comes to mind when you think of kindness?”
Rather than approaching individuals in public, I sat outside painting and allowed them to approach me, to initiate conversation about what I was painting and studying in the landscape. Over the course of our conversation, I asked the question about color and kindness. I did not ask "What is the color of kindness," but rather "What color comes to mind when you think of kindness?" The first question could invite debate at best, or insulting generalizations and hurtful words or actions at worst. The question I asked was one of individual associations of color with experiences of kindness. I hoped to inspire memories, stories of lived encounters that included colors in any form. Each person was invited as the author of their encounters and memories to share them with me, or to pass. The colors of objects and spaces emerged, but the colors of people were not mentioned.
I am editing this in 2021, after over a year of growing epidemics including the epidemic of racism that has plagued our nation since its inception. In 2012, exploration of the concepts of kindness and color had a different meaning than it does in today's context, almost a decade later. Today, I support a group called Color of Change, with monthly donations. It is my hope that change and kindness can go hand in hand, but that is a dream that must be tempered by the very real experiences of those who experience racism, which is never kind. I continue to ponder this project and wonder how I might update it given our changing context. When I come to a new idea, I'll post it on this website.
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Original Project Description:
In the Color of Kindness Project, Anne Beffel responds to neighbors' and strangers' answers to the question, "What color comes to mind when you think of kindness?"
Focusing on color and gesture, Beffel interprets the free associations of people as they move between language and visual imagination. In the process, she realizes the power of words to connect beings to one another and our world, and the failure of language to fully embody the phenomena of color.
Beffel draws her palettes from the flora in her neighborhood, as well as vast land and seascapes. Working en plein air while exploring abstraction, she integrates painting with the relational practices of activating social spaces and interactions. Throughout the painting project, she grows to better know others and has produced close to 100 panels with oil pastels on Gessobord. The result is a new, hybrid form: painting as social practice. The experiences and stories generated by the project are at least as important and the panels themselves.
Color of Kindness was exhibited at Finlandia University, Hancock, Michigan in 2012.
Project Funded By:
Finlandia University, Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts and supported by University of Iowa Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, and Michigan Technological University (MTU) College of Sciences and Art, Department of Visual and Performing Arts. Special thanks to Travis Pierce, MTU Chief Housing Officer and Director, for his support of Studio Here and Now, a place for public art and artists.
Currently installed at the University of Iowa Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
The Color of Kindness project began in 2012 because I wanted to begin working with color again after a long hiatus, and I wished for more kindness in my life. It struck me I could integrate my “relational” art practices - my exploration of important social concerns in the presence of others - with something as traditional as painting. I chose to do this through the simple question of “What color comes to mind when you think of kindness?”
Rather than approaching individuals in public, I sat outside painting and allowed them to approach me, to initiate conversation about what I was painting and studying in the landscape. Over the course of our conversation, I asked the question about color and kindness. I did not ask "What is the color of kindness," but rather "What color comes to mind when you think of kindness?" The first question could invite debate at best, or insulting generalizations and hurtful words or actions at worst. The question I asked was one of individual associations of color with experiences of kindness. I hoped to inspire memories, stories of lived encounters that included colors in any form. Each person was invited as the author of their encounters and memories to share them with me, or to pass. The colors of objects and spaces emerged, but the colors of people were not mentioned.
I am editing this in 2021, after over a year of growing epidemics including the epidemic of racism that has plagued our nation since its inception. In 2012, exploration of the concepts of kindness and color had a different meaning than it does in today's context, almost a decade later. Today, I support a group called Color of Change, with monthly donations. It is my hope that change and kindness can go hand in hand, but that is a dream that must be tempered by the very real experiences of those who experience racism, which is never kind. I continue to ponder this project and wonder how I might update it given our changing context. When I come to a new idea, I'll post it on this website.
----------
Original Project Description:
In the Color of Kindness Project, Anne Beffel responds to neighbors' and strangers' answers to the question, "What color comes to mind when you think of kindness?"
Focusing on color and gesture, Beffel interprets the free associations of people as they move between language and visual imagination. In the process, she realizes the power of words to connect beings to one another and our world, and the failure of language to fully embody the phenomena of color.
Beffel draws her palettes from the flora in her neighborhood, as well as vast land and seascapes. Working en plein air while exploring abstraction, she integrates painting with the relational practices of activating social spaces and interactions. Throughout the painting project, she grows to better know others and has produced close to 100 panels with oil pastels on Gessobord. The result is a new, hybrid form: painting as social practice. The experiences and stories generated by the project are at least as important and the panels themselves.
Color of Kindness was exhibited at Finlandia University, Hancock, Michigan in 2012.
Project Funded By:
Finlandia University, Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts and supported by University of Iowa Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, and Michigan Technological University (MTU) College of Sciences and Art, Department of Visual and Performing Arts. Special thanks to Travis Pierce, MTU Chief Housing Officer and Director, for his support of Studio Here and Now, a place for public art and artists.