This is the second of a wee series of artist interviews based on the colours of the rainbow! It has been a fun project. What impact did each colour have on the artist’s life. What is the strongest memory or association with it.
My second interview is with the delightful Tascha Parkinson of Toronto, Canada. The daughter of a painter, she carries on family tradition and creates the most wonderful, cheerful creations under the careful direction of her two Siamese cats, Opie and Lily. You can read her blog here and buy some of her art on eBay and and Etsy. Tascha has also dipped into the Youtube world and has some great art videos available to watch:) and of course there is Facebook!
Little Red and the Wolf Cubs
Catching Snowflakes
Siamese Cat and Sushi
Here are Tascha’s colour memories……”Thanks for letting me look back”
RED:
Back in art school I hung out with some people who loved bicycles. They rode them all over and would participate in what is called “critical mass”. Every last Thursday of the month cyclists get together at Bloor and Spadina and ride their bikes through Toronto ringing their bells. I wanted a bike, so I went to the Goodwill, and there, was a vintage cruiser bike! I was so excited! It was from the 50’s or 60’s and it was a brown color. I went to Canadian Tire and bought a can of red enamel and painted the bike out on my balcony. I loved that bike! Unfortunately, it got stolen 5 years later.
ORANGE:
All the kitties I had growing up were orange colour. Then when I had my first apartment, I got Bailey. Another orange kitty. Everyone always remembers that about my childhood. That I always had orange cats.
YELLOW:
I grew up with my mom driving a yellow corvette stingray. BRIGHT YELLOW! You could always spot it in a parking lot!
GREEN:
Being part Irish green played a big part in my life. Four leaf clovers and such. Luck of the Irish. I always wore something green on St. Patrick’s day.
BLUE:
This is a hard one. I guess I would say blue jeans. As a teenager I would try bleaching my jeans to have a tie-dyed appearance. I loved the wild pattern that would emerge from the areas that the bleach was stronger.
PURPLE:
Back in Art College I felt like this was my time to experiment with my hair. I dyed my hair purple. It was bright purple. I loved it! It was so hard to keep up though, and now I could never have the energy to maintain it.
PINK:
When I was about 18 I was in love with the movie “Pretty in Pink”, I loved the way Molly Ringwald looked in that movie! I watched it about 100 times. It was a big part of my teenage life.
