THE SKIN COLOR PROJECT

Using a digital camera, I have taken pictures of the forearms of hundreds of participants, and then used Adobe Photoshop to cut out a square-inch section from each forearm. The idea was to accurately measure and record the different skin colors of people. Interestingly, I found an average of fifteen different colors within each square-inch sample. This discovery has led me to believe that people are not, in fact, any one color, that skin color is a fiction in this sense.

From each square-inch sample, I made eight color swatches. These represent the multi-coloredness of each participant. Based on the data, I have collected 3000 different colors from the people who rolled up their sleeves for the cause. These 3000 colors have become my palette: my Skin-Color Bank.

Using this Skin Color Bank, I have begun to create digital works. The artwork such as The Flag in Black & White, Sojourner Truth and Protest are some examples of these digitally generated works.

I have also converted some of the digitally collected colors into latex wall-paints and used them to create large paintings.

Solomon T. Wondimu