Two weeks ago a friend called to invite me to have my aura photographed with her at the Padlock Gallery by a visiting "galactic channel, spiritual counselor, visionary speaker, and existensial alchemist" named Ackbar.
Here is the best definition I could find regarding how the photo is produced:
"This is classified as a biofeedback apparatus. Our technologies produce an electronic interpretation of what we believe the Aura would looks like. It does not photograph the actual Aura. There's nothing that exists which can do this. The camera actually moves through two processes. It takes about eight to ten seconds to take an aura portrait. In the first two seconds the Polaroid camera snaps the portrait. In the remaining six to eight seconds, the biofeedback apparatus measures the electral potential along the meridian points of the palm of the hand, then converts that information into an electrical frequency and displays this as colors and pattern which are shown directly over the portrait to represent the Aura. The aura photos are brighter than the aura seen by psychics, because we amplify the signal. "
When Ackbar did my reading, he talked not only about the meaning of the individual colors, but also their relationship to the different chakras. In my case, he saw primarily indigo (along with blue and purple) which generally indicates a search for truth, but also psychic abilities (say wha??) which emanated from the "third eye" and crown chakras.
Since having my aura photographed, I've been doing research online regarding the strength and energy associated with color. I found a really intriguing website which clearly spells out the strengths, weakness, abilities and ailments associated with each color and chakra, and goes on to describe ways in which you can use color to improve your life. The part that I found most exciting was "color breathing."
If asked why I choose to paint instead of some other medium, I would probably talk about it's relationship to drawing. But, of the all the formal characteristics of paint, color is by far the most important to me. I often use flat shapes, or in some cases fields, of color to lend to my paintings a certain moodiness or psychological weight. In the past, I have just thought of it as my personal, somewhat eccentric, palette. I am pretty psyched to learn more about these ancient associations of specific colors to the body and spirit, and I can sense this becoming much more important in some upcoming paintings...
