Incarnadine

INCARNADINE
in·car·na·dine
inˈkärnədīn/

adjective
of a red color.

noun
a red color.

verb
color (something) red.

Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
– Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 2

There is a scene in Macbeth where the title character cuts his hand and muses that were he to dip it into the ocean, might he make the whole sea turn red? Such is the pretense of any painter approaching a blank surface when their brush is soaked heavy with a color in the range of red. From orange to purple with all the crimsons and pinks in between, red is the color that best substantiates the artist’s assertive nature and transubstantiates energy into rendered form. To incarnadine a canvas or object is to tame the energy around us all into a pulsating frozen harness. This exhibit includes a cross section of Southern California artists united by their use of red yet oppositional in many regards: famous and unknown, female and male, privileged and political, alive and dead, formal and subjective, related and hermetic, figurative and abstract… but all present here, harmonizing in their use of the color of blood, lava, wine, and fire.
—Mat Gleason, curator of INCARNADINE