Color Walk

By Amy Sillman

Go on a color walk.
Walk all around your town.
Look for color all day.

Do not go to a museum.
Do not go to a gallery.
A gallery is a place with art.

Look for colors everywhere else!

Start with easy colors.
Look at red lights.
Look at green lights.
Look at yellow lights.

Soon you will see more colors.
Colors are all around us.

Bring a notebook.
Write down what you see.

Some colors give warnings.
Some colors are for ads.
Some colors show happy times.
Some colors show what people like.

What colors do you like?

Look at people's clothes.
Are they wearing bright colors?

Look at colorful things in the world.

What if a man wears a pink coat?
What if a woman wears bright orange?
What could that mean?

Look for colors on buildings.
Look for colors on signs.
Look for colors on products.
Look for colors at stores.
Look for colors on TV.
Look for colors at parks.
Look for colors at police stations.
Look for colors at hair salons.

Then look for colors in art.

Do we have rules about color?
Do some colors get left out?

First, study color outside.
Then, study color in a museum.
See how artists use color.

Now try something new with color.

Wear a color in a new way.
Wear it on your body for a day.
Make it different and surprising.

Or make a colored flag.
Put it in a public place.
Give it a secret meaning.
See what happens!

Activity Summary

Topic: Exploring color

Good for:

• Beginners
• Middle learners
• Advanced learners

Ways to make art:

• Installation art (art you build in a space)
• Performance art (art you act out)

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About Amy Sillman

Born: 1955 in Detroit, Michigan
Lives now: New York, New York

Amy Sillman is an artist.
She loves to paint.

She uses bold brush strokes.
She uses drips of paint.
She uses thick paint too.

She makes her paintings feel very physical.

Sometimes she paints big, careful paintings.
Sometimes she draws her friends in black ink.

Her art talks about big ideas.
It talks about being a woman.
It talks about acting and performing.
It even has funny parts.

Before she was an artist, she had many jobs.

She worked in a fish factory in Alaska.
She worked in a printing factory in Chicago.
She studied Japanese language for one year.

Then she found painting.
She studied painting in New York City.

After finishing school, she kept painting.
She practiced for ten more years.
She was always learning how to paint better.