This piece hit home, because it relates to a new skill, I’ve been working on for a couple years now. To really understand something deeply, my brain has to visualize it first.
After working for a black man with all black-employees, except me, I realized I could not accurately translate their colour to my drawings. I could not even photograph them well. Now, that is bad and I have no excuse. I spent years learning the physics of light (color). I’ve been drawing since I was a little kid and earned a large part of living that way too.
It took me a year to learn how to get the various tones and shadows down on paper. To get there, I had to look at dozens of photos of black people and I mean really look – look until I could see. I wasn’t the only one, who got into this project. I used to bring my prisma-colours to work where my co-workers let me try to get their colour mix right (too fun).
In my experience with this effort, “rich” is the only word possible. Not only is dark, or light inadequate, it is inaccurate. There are only two colors in the universe – one is light and the other is dark. Very few people have even seen black – ever. The only time I saw black was in a cave, a mile underground.
What we call white is the complete absence of color. What we call black is the complete and total presence of light.
Light rays separate into three colours – red, blue and yellow – and every other colour we see, is actually a reflection of those rays of light. IOW, we see light, not colour. But that’s the reason I had such a hard time translating what I saw on paper. I kept trying to draw what I thought (black), not what I saw which was light reflecting off the surface of the skin.
White skin absorbs so much light, it is technically speaking, black in some people (meaning it reflects no light for our eyes to see). Black and brown skin, absorb very little light (meaning light is being reflected outwards which we see as color). Once I figured out that I needed more colour, not less, I started getting it right. Even my photos have improved.
In this process, I started to see beauty, once hidden from me, by what you so accurately describe as “the most corrupt class of people in recorded history.” Getting myself out of that corrupted rut and into the real world is a joy. My eyes are getting old and I wear glasses most all the time, but I can finally see (and I think that is sad).
PS. I can’t tell you how good it feels to hear you these days. Something changed and your writing went from cautious to flat out great.
