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• John Wiens presents "How life became colorful: the evolution of conspicuous colors (and their functions) in plants and animals"

  • When
    15 Apr 2025
  •  
    2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
  • Location
    virtual

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  How life became colorful

  The evolution of conspicuous colors (and their functions)
  in plants and animals

  In this talk, I will discuss recent work by my collaborators and myself on the evolution of colors in animals and plants. Plants and animals are often adorned with potentially conspicuous colours (e.g. red, yellow, orange, blue, purple). These include the dazzling colours of fruits and flowers, the brilliant warning colours of frogs, snakes, and invertebrates, and the spectacular sexually selected colours of insects, fish, birds, and lizards. Such signals are often thought to evolve by utilizing pre-existing sensitivities in the receiver’s visual systems (e.g. sexually selected coloration evolved to utilize sensitivities to brightly colored fruit). This raises the question: what was the initial function of conspicuous colouration and colour vision? Here, we review the origins of colour vision, fruit, flowers, and aposematic and sexually selected colouration, and when each one evolved. We find that aposematic colouration is widely distributed across animals but relatively young, evolving only in the last ~150 million years (Myr). Sexually selected colouration in animals appears to be confined to arthropods and chordates, and is also relatively young (generally <100 Myr). Colourful flowers likely evolved ~200 million years ago (Mya), whereas colourful fruits/seeds likely evolved ~300 Mya. Colour vision (sensu lato) appears to be substantially older, and likely originated ~400–500 Mya in both arthropods and chordates. Thus, colour vision may have evolved long before extant lineages with fruit, flowers, aposematism, and sexual colour signals.  We also find that there appears to have been an explosion of colour within the last ~100 Myr, including >200 origins of aposematic colouration across nine animal phyla and >200 origins of sexually selected colouration among arthropods and chordates.

  Bio:

  John J. Wiens is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona.  Prior to coming to Arizona in 2013, he was an Associate Professor and Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University in New York (2003–2012).  Before that he was a curator of herpetology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh (1995–2002).  He obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin (1995), and his B.S. degree at the University of Kansas (1991).  He has served as an Associate Editor for several journals in ecology and evolution (e.g. American Naturalist, Ecography, Ecology Letters, Evolution, Systematic Biology) and as Editor-in-Chief of the Quarterly Review of Biology.  He is an ISI Highly Cited Researcher and a winner of the President’s Award of the American Society of Naturalists.  He has published >250 scientific papers.  He studies many questions in ecology and evolutionary biology, and especially the origins of biodiversity patterns and the impacts of climate change.  He is also interested in phylogeny, speciation, sexual selection, niche evolution, and the biology of reptiles and amphibians.  He has been interested in the evolution of conspicuous colors in animals for many years.

  
  

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• Fluorescent Fridays: Creating Color Stories in Printed Layers

  • When
    02 May 2025
  •  
    1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
  • Location
    virtual
  • Spaces left
    292
  • Registered
    8 registrants

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  WHO	University students and faculty
  WHEN	May 2, 2025, @ 1 pm. US Eastern

  This presentation will focus on printed color through story and form with Kansas City Art Institute Professor Laura Crehuet Berman and Senior Printmaking Department students.  Esther Bach, Hannah Dixon, Analee Hyacinthe, and Sarah Manuel will share their BFA thesis work in relation to color, process, form, and narrative. The KCAI Printmaking Department teaches a unique course, "Color in Printmaking," developed by Laura, in which students determine and define their own color story within their artwork.

  
  

  Left to Right: Analee Hyacinthe, Sarah Manuel, Laura Crehuet Berman, Esther Bach, Hannah Dixon
  
  

  Presenters:

  • Laura Crehuet Berman is a visual artist and a Professor in the Printmaking Department at Kansas City Art Institute, where she has taught courses in printmaking, book arts, and color since 2002. In 2024 was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Canberra, Australia, where she furthered her research on printmaking and color.

  https://www.instagram.com/bermanlaura/

  https://www.lauracrehuetberman.com/

  • Esther Bach is a printmaker whose work explores liminal home interiors and feelings of nostalgia and longing through the mediums of lithography and mezzotints. In her free time, she can be found craving Taco Bell and knitting things for her friends.

  https://www.instagram.com/estherbachart/

  • Hannah Dixon is a printmaker based in Kansas City, Missouri. Currently working towards her BFA in Printmaking and Art History from the Kansas City Art Institute, her projected graduation date is Spring 2025. She uses lithography, monotype, and screen printing processes in her practice. Looking ahead, Hannah plans to attend a graduate program for printmaking.

  https://www.instagram.com/hannsdot.dart/

  • Analee Hyacinthe is a printmaker, painter, and book artist who creates short, gothic illustrations featuring themes of idolization, the pursuit of power, and death. Based between Kansas City, Missouri and Miami, Florida, Analee is currently pursuing a BFA in printmaking at the Kansas City Art Institute, with an expected graduation date of 2025. She works as a puppeteer under Soulbird studios, performing at venues such as 18th and Vine Art Fest (2023) and Kansas City Renaissance Faire (2023-present).

  https://www.instagram.com/inky.presses/

  • Sarah Manuel is an Asian American artist working in printmaking and digital processes. She explores the themes of cultural identity and adoption through images of family and pop culture. After graduating from KCAI this semester, Sarah will work as a Summer Intern at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado.

  https://www.instagram.com/sy_manwell_prints/

  FLUORESCENT FRIDAYS is a platform for university students from all disciplines to network with color professionals and fellow students, and to explore cutting-edge information about color’s role in our lives and applications in the world. 

  Global Student Chapter: The long range goal is to build a global student chapter that positions color as a multidimensional STEAM model (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math), sharing up-to-date color research by scientists, artists, designers, industry professionals, and university students.21st century color communication requires a commitment to building bridges for sharing resources, cultivating mentors, and creating new opportunities. With up-to-date information and useful tools, students become the next generation of leaders in ever-evolving color related disciplines.

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• John Seed and Gabrielle Selz present "Sam Francis and Color"

  • When
    13 May 2025
  •  
    2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
  • Location
    virtual

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  Sam Francis and Color

  Sam Francis (1923-1994) was an internationally acclaimed Abstract Expressionist who spoke of color as “a kind of holy substance” and a “receptacle of a feeling.” In this webinar art historian John Seed and Francis’s biographer Gabrielle Selz will explore the artist’s fascination with color and the varied effects and meanings he generated with it over the span of his career. They will also describe his collaborations with Daniel Cytron, a studio assistant who for three decades manufactured custom acrylic color dispersions and printing inks to Francis’s specifications. 
  
  Speaker bios:
  
  John Seed is professor emeritus of art and art history at Mount San Jacinto College in Southern California. Seed has written about art and artists for publications including The Huffington Post, Arts of Asia, and Hyperallergic, and is the author of Disrupted Realism: Paintings for a Distracted World. For over a decade Seed has also served as a board member for the Los Angeles based Sam Francis Foundation. 
  
  Gabrielle Selz is an art historian, fine art appraiser, and award-winning author. Her most recent book was the first comprehensive biography of Sam Francis, Light on Fire: the Art and Life of Sam Francis, which was awarded the Silver Medal for Best Nonfiction by the California Book Awards 2021. Her previous book, Unstill Life: Art and Love in the Age of Abstraction, received the best memoir of the year award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) and was listed as one of the best books of 2014 by the San Francisco Chronicle. Her essays have appeared in The New Yorker, More Magazine, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Daily Beat, Literary Hub, Berkeleyside and Newsday among others. Her art criticism has appeared in Art Forum, Hyperallergic and Art Papers.

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• May Colorful Connections

  • When
    20 May 2025
  •  
    1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
  • Location
    virtual
  • Spaces left
    37
  • Registered
    3 registrants

  Register

  

  Colorful Connections is an opportunity to gather informally with other members of ISCC for a little socializing, networking and learning from each other. Discussions are wide-ranging and depend on attendees, their current interests and past experience. Consider this the online version of coffee breaks and happy hours at a color conference. BYO coffee or beverage and join in the conversation! 

  Note that this is Members Only event. Not a member, no problem - Join here!

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• Color Impact 2025: Color as Communication

  • Start
    16 Jun 2025
  •  
    8:30 AM
  • End
    18 Jun 2025
  •  
    5:30 PM
  • Location
    Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, USA
  • Registered
    18 registrants

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  Join us at Rochester Institute of Technology, in Rochester, NY, on June 16-18, 2025. We have full days planned for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, including formal presentations, panels, receptions, and maybe even a few surprises!

  Prior to the conference, will offer a full day of workshops on Sunday June 15. Workshop participants as well as anyone who wishes to arrive a day early can also reserve a dorm room for the night of Saturday June 14.

  Registration fees and costs for optional events are available now. Registration will open on March 21, International Colour Day. Here are details about accommodations.

  If you are already a Color Council Member, be sure to sign in before you register to receive the Member Discount. If you are new to ISCC or not yet a member, join now and save $75 on your conference registration.

  We look forward to seeing you in June!

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