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