The work on this site is a series of portraits created in a Ishihara Plate motif. Ishihara Plates are used as color blind tests to see if a subject is red-green color blind. If you are red-green color blind, you cannot see anything but random dots of color. If you are not red-green color blind, you can see a number or figure in the pattern of colored dots (see below for an example).
These portraits were created as a way to honor those whose lives and deaths have galvanized people to fight for respect, equality, and the pursuit of happiness.
The juxtaposition of the Ishihara Plate motif, with the obvious portraits in vibrant color is intended to be a proxy that no individual or system is actually color blind when it comes to race. While these portraits won’t change anyone’s unconscious biases, they may spark a discussion that will be part of the journey to inclusiveness, diversity, equality and anti-racism.
Definition of color-blind: adjective col·or-blind | \ ˈkə-lər-ˌblīnd \
1: affected with partial or total inability to distinguish one or more chromatic colors
2: INSENSITIVE, OBLIVIOUS
3: not influenced by differences of race
tried to get the welfare establishment … to abandon its color-blind policy — D. P. Moynihan
especially : free from racial prejudice
a white man with an invisible black skin in a color-blind community — James Farmer
The most common color-blindness test consists of a number of colored plates, called Ishihara plates, each of which contains a circle of dots appearing randomized in color and size. Within the pattern are dots which form a number or shape clearly visible to those with normal color vision, and invisible, or difficult to see, to those with a red-green color vision defect. What number do you see?
The art on this site contains circles of dots appearing in randomized color and size. Within the pattern are dots which form portraits, clearly visible to all, of those who are an inspiration to fight for equality. They are intended to reinforce that all should be seen and respected as the individuals they are. To celebrate differences and treat each other with respect and equity.
Black Lives Matter.
