COPAKE — Echoing the visual style of the late famed abstract artist Mark Rothko (1903-1970), area residents were invited to explore the link between color and emotion through art at the online workshop entitled, Mark Rothko & the Color of Emotion, held by the Roeliff Jansen Community Library on the evening of Thursday, Feb. 18.
Hosted by Children’s Librarian Tia Maggio, herself an artist, the workshop was held via Zoom due to the COVID pandemic. Since they would be experimenting with color, participants were asked to have white paper and pastels or crayons to use and were assured that they didn’t need to be artists to engage in the workshop’s creative exercises.
Creating an open online environment where participants could feel free to share their ideas and artwork, Maggio encouraged participants to write down the following emotions — hope, joy, sadness, excitement, anger, fear, shyness, calmness, hopelessness and love or being “hopelessly in love” — and put them aside for later when they’d begin illustrating those emotions.
Opening a slideshow featuring some of Rothko’s work, Maggio initiated the workshop with a quote from Rothko taken during a retrospective exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC in 1961. She explained that Rothko was asked how long it took him to paint a particular piece that seemed to consist of merely a few large blotches of colored canvas. In reply, Maggio said Rothko responded drily, “I’m 57 years old and it took all my life to do it.”
“So we’re going to start from the beginning and we’re going to see what he might have been talking about,” Maggio said. “I think if you’ve dabbled in art, we’ve all heard that: ‘My child could do that’ or ‘How long did it take you to do that?’ but sometimes it does take a lifetime to maybe loosen up enough or be free to find yourself and what your masterpieces are, if you’re so lucky.”
Sharing Rothko’s story, Maggio said he was born Markus Rothkowitz in Daugavpils, Russia (now Latvia) on Sept. 25, 1903. His father was a pharmacist who immigrated to Portland, Ore., when the artist was a child, and he eventually the family went to Portland when Rothko was 10. When Rothko came to the U.S., Maggio said he didn’t speak any English, though he would soon excel in school and secure a scholarship to Yale. He later dropped out to fulfill his desire to experience New York City. It was there that Rothko stumbled upon an art class with The Art Students League. Aside from the four-months he spent at The Art Students League, Maggio said Rothko was a self-taught artist and became a part of the New York art scene as he pursued his passion for the visual arts.
Taking her audience through some of Rothko’s earlier figurative paintings, Maggio pointed out the characteristics of his work at various times in his life and throughout his career. Workshop participants contemplated the concepts and colors captured in his work, feeling free to share which emotions and ideas they saw portrayed in his paintings.
Moving into some creative exercises, participants were invited to pick an emotion from the list they created earlier and then pick only three colors from their crayon or pastel boxes to create their own “Rothkos.” Some participants associated the color red with joy rather than with anger or hopelessness. Pink, orange and yellow were seen by some as colors to express excitement. Regardless of their choices of colors, participants admired each other’s interpretations and some strived to guess which emotions were portrayed in each other’s art, many of whom were surprised when the emotions were revealed.
For more on upcoming programs and workshops at the Roe Jan Library, go to www.roejanlibrary.org or call 518-325-4101.
The life and work of famed abstract artist Mark Rothko were evaluated and echoed at the Mark Rothko & the Color of Emotion online community workshop hosted by the Roeliff Jansen Community Library on Thursday evening, Feb. 18. Photo submitted
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