Neglected color

Look around you. What colors predominate in your environment? My furniture is light wood, chrome and black, accented with green and red, sitting in rooms with pale walls and carpets. How about your wardrobe? My clothes are mainly shades of pink, maroon, olive, brown and black.

And what colors are missing?

Blue is the least represented color in my life. I can count the number of blue items in my house that I’ve purchased: 8. Strange, really since it’s the favorite color of most Americans and Europeans according to the fascinating book Blue: The History of a Color by Michel Pastoureau.

Blue is the color of calmness, repose and unity. Taking that a bit farther, Color Wheel Pro says light blue is associated with health, healing, tranquility, understanding, and softness; dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.

According to an article about color used on websites, “[Blue] generates feelings of tranquility, love, acceptance, patience, understanding and cooperation. Its negative qualities if used inappropriately are fear, coldness, passivity and depression.” Feng Shui theory says blue is energy on the decline.

So it seems you can make blue mean just about anything. There’s a quite comprehensive lesson on color meanings if you’re interested in learning more.

Today I’m going to experiment with blue. I can’t paint the apartment, but I have stuck some colored paper on my bare windows and the wall near my desk. I changed the system colors on my computer (Wow, the Mac OS “blue” theme is so strongly colored!) I will try to find something blue in my closet. I think I have some blue nail polish for my toes.

Wonder what turn my creativity will take today? Calmer? Or colder?

Posted by kuri at May 14, 2004 10:57 AM