Chroma Nomad

People say the eyes are the window to the soul, but I never could quite agree. To me, a person’s voice is a window into their present and past. It is a collection of the places you’ve lived, the people you’ve been surrounded by, your native language, your family heritage, how you feel today, and how you see yourself. 

People have many voices. There is the polite customer service voice. There is the voice you use with your closest friends and family. There is the voice you hear in your thoughts (if you have that internal monologue–not everyone does) compared to the voice you hear out loud in a recording of yourself. There is the voice you use for little kids or pets. There’s a difference between the voice of your native language and the new language you speak. There’s more than one version of ourselves in the world. 

Our place in the world also changes our voice. When we find ourselves in different physical spaces, our voice changes. This is similar to if we entered a small room and talk to another person, we likely would not yell. The perception of space also plays into how our voices change. For my sound-to-color synesthesia, the loudness of the sound affects the brightness that I see. If someone has a loud yellow voice, their quieter voice would be a slightly duller yellow with wisps of gray or white. How we talk to a person who is superior in status to us such as a boss compared to a small child also changes the tones and pitch of our voice. 

From what I have noticed in my years of painting voices, it is these slight changes in ourselves and in our awareness of our physical space that impacts the tones and pitch of our voice. This, in turn, impacts the colors of our voice. Although, it is not usually a drastic change of color, but more so a lighter or darker hue depending on the situation.  

With all these changes, you may wonder how it is possible to capture a person’s authentic voice. When I decide to paint someone, this is the utmost concern of mine and it is something I aim for. I ask that my participants stay as present in the moment as possible. I find a physical space that they will be likely comfortable in and free from too many outside distractions. I take my time to capture the complexities of a person’s tune and appreciate the story they share with me in that moment. Outside of directly painting a person’s voice, I try to remember that we are all different people in different spaces and I welcome the frequent changes of hues and tones in a person’s voice in my daily life.