Press Release

Link to I-Tunes Book: Christian Faur “A Box of Crayons”

Color Value is an exhibition that delves into the usage, meaning, intensity and value of color in the making of art. Without light, there is no color. Without contrast, there is no difference. Without either light or contrast, there is no value. These artists were selected for this exhibition because they address a wide range of points along the spectrum of color and value. The title “color value” was chosen because it is open enough to tackle many artistic concerns from literal interpretations to multi-layered deductions of what color and value mean.

Melodie series uses a single constant image to explore in several iterations the weaving of colors, tones, and patterns with the intent to push the limits of his crayon technique. Faur begins by deconstructing a single image into its most basic elements of tone, color, form and resolution. Using traditional artists’ pigments and an encaustic medium, Faur mixes and casts the exact colors and quantities needed for each of the crayons used in a particular work. The highly manipulated image is then reconstructed with these individually cast wax “pixels.”

Color Value is an exhibition that delves into the usage, meaning, intensity and value of color in the making of art. Without light, there is no color. Without contrast, there is no difference. Without either light or contrast, there is no value. These artists were selected for this exhibition because they address a wide range of points along the spectrum of color and value. The title “color value” was chosen because it is open enough to tackle many artistic concerns from literal interpretations to multi-layered deductions of what color and value mean.

In his Color Word paintings, Christian Faur developed a coding system with 26 distinct colors, each representing a letter in the English alphabet. The highest frequency letters (vowels) were mapped with the most saturated colors using the RGB color system. The next highest were based on cyan, purple, pink and gray. Lesser degrees of shade, hue and saturation were used for the remaining letters. These paintings are rendered in vertical strips of encaustic color that relate to his color alphabet system. The widths of the color strips conform to the length of the sound of a spoken word. Paradoxically, Faur’s coding system relies on visual poetry in that some sentences will be more visually appealing.