What If Color Is the Answer

[Music]

so we are going to have a chemistry

lesson today folks but probably not the

kind of chemistry lesson you’re thinking

about

i’m going to be talking about the

chemistry of color

as a scientific and a spiritual truth

so i had my heart broken

it was pretty terrible i was devastated

i was frozen i was 27 and i thought he

was the one

and i’m not the only person to have

their heart broken

i’m sure everyone in here understands

all of those emotions

but what you need to know about me is

that i’m an artist

in fact this is my painting behind us

right here and i’m a proud washingtonian

i’m a proud artist from dc but i’m also

a designer and i consume

color and creativity for a living

we design hospitality specialize in

hospitality so restaurants

nightclubs hotels big public spaces

so my life and my art and my work are

both figuratively and literally very

colorful

so back to my 27 year old heartbreak

i wasn’t sure that heartbreak would have

all of these other things that came with

it and particularly

i was frozen i was completely frozen

i i wasn’t painting i didn’t want to get

out of bed

and i didn’t know what to do

it was really the first time where i

felt

immobile i felt gray i felt like

cement and i called a mentor of mine

i said how do i get over this how do i

get over this creative

block that i have right now what do i do

about this this is awful

and he said you know maggie your spirit

is broken right now but your spirit is

tied to your color

and it’s tied to who you are and what

you need to do is you need to exercise

your spirit

like a muscle or a broken bone we need

to we need to repair it

and the only way you’re going to be able

to repair your spirit

is by meeting people by doing the one

thing you don’t want to do

which is date meeting

people is the best thing you can do it

is like research for your soul

and and i thought about that my mind was

sort of blown for a minute

he said you know it is like traveling

it’s like listening to a song for the

first time or eating a new food for the

first time

but you have to do this okay and you

need to get out of your own way you have

to put fear aside

and your spirit is uniquely you and i

was feeling

pretty broken i was feeling not only

frozen but

like my uniqueness was the problem

i was feeling very rejected obviously so

he said you need to make it a game

you need to make it something that

doesn’t feel so personal

and so we sat there and we talked about

it and he said you know let’s

let’s let’s think through this this this

research for your soul

is truly vitamin c for your soul and i

need you

to get excited about it and think about

it that way and i’m a big dork i love

homework i love

the idea of this research and and it

became less intimidating the more we

talked about it so

we made rules to this dating exercise

that i had to go on

okay rule number one was that anybody

who asked me out

no matter what my preconceived notion of

them was i had to say yes

i had to go on that date anybody that i

was interested in

even just a little bit i also had to go

ask them out

under any set of circumstances no matter

what after these dates i had to document

it

as an artist would i had to make a

sketch that would then turn into a

painting

and then i had to have an exhibit so

these are big lofty goals but this is

what took

the insecurity out of it for me and so

i started going on these dates which is

pretty hilarious

and i was documenting them and some of

the dates you know up front were like

kind of boring and kind of dry and i

would tell these guys

like right away at the appetizer i’m

like listen i’m going to make a painting

about you you’re welcome to come to the

exhibit you can buy my art

but it started to teach me how to

appreciate

not only the things that i really liked

but the things that i didn’t like and it

became far less personal

i mean this guy on the left date number

four he fell asleep during our date

and that was the sketch of it i mean i

don’t think i had this suit on maybe i

i would have you know had his attention

a little bit longer but

it was a game it became this really

wonderful

way in which i was starting to learn how

to like dating again

this guy he was so serious and the

sketch feels very serious

all he wanted to talk about was the wine

so i made a painting of the wine that’s

that’s what that date was really about

but i started to meet men

that i wasn’t romantically attracted to

this wasn’t

about meeting prince charming this was

just about meeting people

because men are people too and

i needed to learn how to love

meeting people again and what happened

was

it was the first time in my adult life

personally and professionally where i

was

seeing my experiences my thoughts

and i was documenting them in color

so what if color this entire time

has been both a tool and a translator of

truth

about all human interaction what if

color

is both a lens and a methodology that

you can use

to help yourself adapt to help improve

your relationships

and maybe even problem solving

i believe it can so color theory is very

complicated

it would take me far longer than this

talk to explain all of it

but what i want to do is distill it down

to this one

one unique thing okay no color

next to another color is ever the same

ever this is both scientifically and

chemically proven but it’s

best explained visually okay

now when you add to that

weight and proportion and balance

you can see here that those two colors

right here in the center those are the

exact same colors but the color

surrounding it

is causing a reaction that you can

actually see and feel

what happens when you add value and tone

and exposure

or pressure around a color is even more

fascinating because sometimes the color

completely vanishes and goes away

sometimes its edges change

and this isn’t something that you can

always describe

but it is something that you can always

see and you can always feel

okay and there’s truth to this okay this

is a data point

unlike a number unlike any scientific or

sociological data point

it’s felt it’s seen and

to me it’s truth it’s an indisputable

truth

now these truths okay we’ve used them in

society

in all sorts of business i mean from

marketing and

fashion and in my line of work in design

okay there’s all of these associations

we make about the way we

feel with different colors and you can

see here

that you know red means passion and

white means purity

so when i’m working with a client i say

how do you want someone to feel

when they come into your restaurant how

do you want them to feel when they leave

your establishment so these are some

projects that we’ve designed but

these are the words that people have

described they want people to feel

when they’re in their space so color

usually leads the way in many of these

spaces

edgy organic and modern

rich elegant cozy all of this is driven

by color

and then materials okay so

what does this actually have to do with

you how does this actually help you

in your relationships and problem

solving so i want everybody to just do

me a favor and just come with me down

this

this path and close your eyes for a

minute and i want you to imagine

that you each of you are made up of

color

and each color in your palette

represents something completely and

totally beautiful and unique about you

okay the most amazing thing about this

is that by design you are different

you are completely and totally original

by design nobody else’s palette in this

room or in this world even resembles

yours which is kind of amazing

to me it’s incredibly exciting and very

inspiring

but it can also be a bit daunting and a

little intimidating to people

and we don’t think about how unique and

rare the chemistry of color

actually is in our personal and our

professional lives

so what happens is that this is your

thumbprint this is your bar code this is

your social security number in color

and because no two colors next to each

other are ever

the same you are consistently

meeting people and it’s a hundred

percent

a hundred percent a new experience each

and every time

now because you’re an original painting

which i think is incredibly exciting to

think about yourself that way

it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re

going to like all the original art

that’s walking around the earth it

doesn’t mean that you’re always going to

gel

and when you see people really

connecting

and there’s a chemistry in that you can

feel it you can feel it when you’re

really

working well with somebody or it’s

it’s all working if you will and and

then you know when it’s not

when there’s friction and there’s

overlap and sometimes when there’s

intense

conflict it’s like you can almost see it

you definitely can feel it

now what happens in that moment

is something that by nature we are not

programmed to do do we do not lean into

conflict we do not lean into tension we

don’t celebrate it

but i think we should think about it a

little bit differently because if you

actually saw everybody as this unique

and wonderful original painting and

palette

you might actually enter your

relationships with just a little bit

more excitement and a lot more

inspiration

because we’re made to be different and

to bring out color in one another

we’re made to do this so that

even in those moments of tension or a

little bit of overlap or a little bit of

conflict

it’s teaching us something i always say

to my team

you know get to the cliff faster

tension’s not necessarily a bad thing

it’s actually quite beautiful

because a result there’s usually a

result on the other end of it

and instead when you’re in those moments

of tension and conflict

it’s really common for all of us to

sometimes want to just

subdue our color match tone it down a

little bit

so that the conflict isn’t there but

it’s not always bad

it’s also very difficult because these

are feelings

you can’t necessarily see them like the

colors we just

saw so listen in addition to being an

artist

and a designer i have been an

entrepreneur for the last 20 years

i have employed many people

i have worked with everybody under the

sun artists and craftsmen and creatives

and designers and architects but i’ve

also worked with real estate

moguls and landowners and civic

associations and government officials

so i have to adapt quite often

but i know that when i bring my best

self to the table

and i’m truly living in color that great

things can come from that

so i in many many many

i like to call arranged marriages

in work and this is something that you

can’t do much about in your professional

life sometimes you have to work with

people

you got to get to that goal you both

have a shared goal in mind

but it you may not necessarily click and

i had one of these moments in my career

early on i was on a project that was one

of the most

exciting and pivotal moments of my

career my entire career

and i had a contractor walk up to me

and he said just you know in passing

i don’t work with vaginas and i was like

are you kidding me man i can’t even

believe you just said this [ __ ] to me

like this is unbelievable

and i had this moment where i was on

fire i was so

angry i was also in the same

moment i felt so gross i felt

so dulled and i really didn’t know what

to do

and i called the wisest woman i know

who’s my mother

and i said you know what do i do with

this what do i do with this comment

this is such a huge project for me and i

really felt like i needed to walk away

from the project at this moment

and she said you know margaret or maggie

you have a vagina it’s the truth it’s a

fact

so treat it like that treat it like a

fact treat it like the truth

and to me the only way i could

demonstrate

truth was by seeing it i think when the

truth demands to be told you cannot look

away

and whether i realize it or not in that

moment

i went home and i made an agenda for the

meeting the following day and i hadn’t

told anybody and we got everybody into

the room together

and we sat down and agenda item number

one

was uh the drywall and agenda item

number two

was my vagina and agenda item number

three was millwork and other punch list

items that we had to get through

but these guys were so pissed off they

were so angry

oh my god they were like how could you

put this down and i was like it’s the

truth

and it was in color too by the way so

they had to see it they had to deal with

it and as a team we had to deal with the

truth that this man had said this to me

and we had to deal with the fact that i

was going to probably put things in an

agenda when it upset me

but it was the first time in my

professional career that i’d ever dealt

with anything like that

and that i had handled it like that i

think what happens

often is that when we are in moments

of intense conflict or tension

when things aren’t feeling right we

don’t necessarily come to the table and

want to show everyone

our discomfort but the chemistry of

color

becomes this tool by which we can

actually lead ourselves through conflict

i also believe that through

many different situations in my life

color has led me

to consistently approach conflict in a

very clear way

but it has also allowed me to remind

everybody that i work with

on a regular basis that we’re made

different by

design and as a designer we should need

to pay attention to that

we’re supposed to be different we’re

supposed to celebrate it

it has also led me to have some of the

most unlikely partnerships

and opportunities it led me to

offer a portrait to president obama in

one of the

projects that i designed which was

pretty amazing i’ve been

able to design spaces and places that

really provoke people’s imagination and

really

cater to how special being unique

actually

is i’ve been able to

produce public art projects with again

some of the most

unbelievably different

people that you would have never thought

we would be partners

it has allowed me to do public art where

i did a 50 foot by 50 foot mural of a

bunch of vaginas

on pennsylvania avenue this one is

called

the women who will and i’m very proud of

this mural

um it has allowed me to be fearless

in my own color and allow me to

understand

that the chemistry of color is in fact a

truth about all of us

and i really believe that color is the

[Applause]

answer

you