Patterns in full technicolour
In my second life of advertising agency exec (first life – Rock and roll, current life – Geometrician) I was fascinated by silk screen printing. For anyone who hasn’t seen this, (and in the new digital age that’s a distinct possibility) it’s an amazing process. First the image is scanned and separated into four colours. This alone is a bit of a shock. How can a picture that contains hundreds of shades and colour variations be separated into four colours, one of which is black and therefore not a ‘proper’ colour at all.
Our right brain goes ‘wow!’
On the other hand we know since Newton came along, that all colour is made up of three primary colours, red, yellow and blue.
Our left brain goes ‘duh!’
When the first colour is applied to the canvas, it’s impossible to see anything. The second and third colours reveal vague shapes but still resemble lots of dots in close proximity to each other. Finally the black screen goes down and suddenly the image, appears magically in front of your eyes.
The next part of the process is the addition of ‘specials’. Because all the dots are so small the colour mixes are subtle. If we want something to stand out more, we have to mix the colour up separately and apply it with large dots to give greater ink coverage.
What if life had a blueprint for its own grand design.
We would all be part of a constantly evolving process. This would necessitate us taking our place in the whole masterpiece. Each day would reveal our specific make up of dots – both the four base colours of the survival archetype patterns, plus the daily ‘specials’.
If we are messing up the picture (and a quick look at the world reveals this to be a given) we need to go back to basic geometrics…
In our 21st century narcissism, it seems we only want to be the special colours we have identified ourselves with. Like kindergarten children happily filling the white space with unstructured daubs of paint, we think we are being creative. But if we are to ascend to the next level of evolution (and prevent the unholy mess we are creating) we need to own and work with our four survival patterns…the four colours of life’s process.
All it takes is accountability, humility, some changed perception and an ability to know our place and purpose in the whole. We could transform ourselves from millions of individual dots…to a work of art.
As if by magic…a whole new world appears.
Our right brain goes ‘wow!’
Our left brain goes ‘what took you so long!’