Pink is Choices

Pink is Choices, ink on paper, 2013 by Sarah Atlee

Pink is choices. Pink is me allowing me to be me on my own terms. Pink is choosing to use pink because I want to, not because the Barbie aisle at Toys 'R' Us tells me that I should.

I wasn't always a colorist. In college my work was monochromatic, or very nearly, because I didn't feel that I was educated or practiced enough to use color.

At first it was yellows, reds, blues. Now the pinks are my favorite paints and pens. Bright, soft, luminous, loaded, cliched, camp, kitsch, new & radical in every sense, all over again.

Pink is choosing to accept things that I rejected as a child. I did not accept commercial interests telling me who I should be, and pink was an inextricable element of that. Now, choosing pink is my way of declaring that I am whoever I want to be, without fear of rejection.

Dedicated to my Mom, who taught me that it's okay to be my own person.