Poet and voice over artist, Ken Nordine, the bridge between the beatniks and jazz poets, was asked in the early 60s to create a series of radio commercials for Fuller Paints in San Francisco. They told him "Do whatever you want just mention our name" Nordine would begin each commercial with an invitation, "The Fuller Paint Company invites you to stare with your ears at yellow (or blue, green, magenta...) He would then recite a stream-of-consciousness piece that would often make the listener forget it was a commercial, coming under the spell of the anthropomorphic qualities of a particular color. A rare thing happens when a client trusts you that much. It's when an artist, designer, craftsperson does their very best commercial assignments.
The vinyl album can still be purchased and there are countless animated attempts of visually articulating his poetry on You Tube. I prefer leaving it up to the listener to "stare with their ears". Nordine went on to create dozens of these riffs on color and as a visual artist and performer, I can't tell you how green with envy I am. To give yellow, one of my favorites, a try you can go here.
William Miller and his light leaking, photo warping Polaroid SX-70. Exquisite mistakes. Could look at these for hours. Via Alpines blog.
