General Discussion

This theme reminds me of my 2-dimensional design class my freshman year at art school, way back when.

The first day of class, the instructor gave us all black and white paper and told us to tear it up and make a design. After the group critique, our homework was to work on the idea we explored in class and take it further but keep it in black and white. The next class we all came in with more ambitious work, put it on the wall for another critique, and once again, the homework was to keep going in black and white. It went on like that for weeks. As we tried to outdo ourselves, the work got better and better.

Finally, about midway through the semester, the instructor said, "Keep going with your same idea, but this time add color."

We were all excited. Finally, color! But the next week, everyone's work was worse. Way worse. The instructor was nonplussed. He said, "Let this be a lesson to all of you: if color doesn't add something, it subtracts."