No. 32

The Emerald City.

[No. 32]

WHAT COLOR DO YOU SEE?

The garden of love is green without limit and yields many fruits other than sorrow or joy. 
Rumi

From aesthetics to ethics, I find beauty in a clean palette. For many, black speaks of death, drab, dull; I see clarity, purity, peace. My thoughts were affirmed as I strolled through Silke Otto-Knapp’s exhibit at Regen Projects a few days ago. The artist’s method of breathing life into black and white was stunning. As I stood before her depiction of a [monochromatic] rainbow, I marveled at how confidently the shape alone held a pulse. 

Land and Sea (Rainbow), 2019 by Silke Otto-Knapp at Regen Projects

A fellow gallery goer approached me and touched his chest: “I feel these pieces deeply; they make me so sad,” the stranger said. I took a breath and suddenly saw climate change, the wildfires that decimated Lahaina, the mudslides in Montecito. Smoke.

Then, I remembered the drive earlier that day. How I’d been struck by bright emerald driving through Beverly Hills in the late morning glowy sun. Did the drought pass over this town? Do folks here grin and pay the excess water bills? Maybe green really is the color of money. 

In biology class, we learn the makeup of cells, life force, photosynthesis. It’s wild how the thing we crave most and that some people crawl their way toward is usually something natural, something that should be readily available to everyone. 

You’ve got to invest in the world, you’ve got to read, you’ve got to go to art galleries, you’ve got to find out the names of plants. You’ve got to start to love the world and know about the whole genius of the human race. We’re amazing people.
Vivienne Westwood

I have so much respect for humans & groups who spend their lives remembering to plant beautiful things. 

• Olympia Auset of Süprmarkt’s work to overcome food deserts in Los Angeles. 
• Food Forward’s efforts to rescue fresh surplus produce to reduce hunger and food waste. 
• The Compton Community Garden fighting for their beautiful plot of land that offers a verdant oasis to locals, and seeing them win. 
• Amorette of Queen Los Angeles and Noey of Yes Yes Nursery’s dedication to threading green through all they do.
• Just the other day, Jamiah E. Hargins of Crop Swap LA shared in a post that if 1 in 7 people in LA planted a food garden in their yard, we could eradicate food insecurity in our city.

Black is not the absence of possibility; it is the presence of possibility. I guess the lesson is [BE THE GREEN]. Be a part of the ecosystem. We, humans, are being called to trust the small onyx seed, knowing that one day he will sprout into a gorgeous, iridescent spring of nourishment and freedom.

WHAT COLOR DO YOU SEE?