BP#3

Queens Plaza train station, Long Island City, NY.

"Next stop, Primary Colors. Transfer here to the R and E train."

The striking things about this accidental work of art are the bright primary colors. There is the yellow strip towards the bottom half, the red diagonal stripes cutting the photograph in half, and the dark blue strip in the top half of the photo. Most of this art is comprised of vertical and horizontal lines that make up the tiles with some diagonal lines from the red stripes. The shapes in this accidental art are mostly geometric (small and large square tiles) with the exception of the 3D “bumps” that are painted yellow, which are organically shaped. Although there is a lot of white, the white tiles and the space between the red stripes and yellow line are what take up the negative space. The positive space is made up of the dark blue strip, the yellow strip, and the red diagonal lines. There is actual light in this accidental art that can be seen on the dark blue tiles. It implies the glossiness of the surface. Lastly, the repeated motif in this artwork are the square tiles and the red stripes.

            I chose this accidental art because it was truly fascinating that something as common and functional as a train station would have ben given enough thought to use primary colors for its design. Maybe that was an accident, too, by the industrial designer, but I trust that these folks are quite familiar with the color wheel and thus adept at utilizing said knowledge, so maybe not. Nonetheless, this accidental art represents the story of our lives. The yellow is our bright beginning as innocent children. The red represents our mid-life or climax – that moment in our lives that represents the transition from adolescence to adulthood. The dark blue represents our last days on Earth and our death. And finally, the negative spaces represent everything in between – the events that we understand to be the rising action and falling action in our lives.