Orange rununculus, Canon Digital Rebel
Neon cantaloupe: The house newly painted next door. We watched them test colors in the backyard one day, salmon, bright salmon, dull salmon, cantaloupey salmon. We were incredulous. No salmon please!! But our neighbor doesn’t speak english and is so sweet and cute and old, and how could we risk offending him by bring over our swatches of blue and sage? It just didn’t feel right. We secretly hoped that a family member or friend would come to the rescue and talk him out of it.
It’s painted now, and so bright, so god-awful that people literally cringe when they walk by. I’ve seen people point at the house on several occasions and say, “what the?” When I have a conversation by a window in my house, people’s faces have a peachy glow. It is like a sunset beaming in at all hours of the day. And not in a good way.
Blue: The color I wanted my eyes to be, right around the time when I wanted a button nose, smaller lips and the name Christy. This was the early 80′s and magazines were full of Cheryl Tiegs types, all blond hair and delicate features. Funny to me how even people’s features can be trendy, how today, women will pay thousands of dollars to have full lips. I am personally waiting for bushy eyebrows to make a comeback.
Lime green: The new beads I recently found, some that look like martini olives made of lucite, others a grassy cut crystal, glittering away on my desk.
Chocolate brown: The UPS socks I own {two pairs in fact!} that feel cozy to me at night when I scrunch up on the couch. They were from a boy I dated a long time ago in Santa Barbara. He was sweet and kind, and in a moment of silliness, I told him that I had always dreamed of having my very own pair of UPS socks.
We didn’t last, had a bad falling out and didn’t speak for a couple of years, until that fateful day when a package arrived in the mail. No note, only a return address that I recognized, and two pairs of chocolate brown UPS socks. A peace offering.
Purple: My 9 year old self that couldn’t get enough of it. Purple and red, purple and green, purple and orange… and then I grew out of it. I hear it’s making a comeback. Welcome back purple! I even made a purple necklace for the first time in years.
Shamrock green: I am a bit of a color nazi as they say. My husband rolls his eyes when I very casually, very quietly, switch out the plate he has laid out for me because it doesn’t go well with the food that will be placed on top of it. I have a set of Fiestaware dishes and bowls and tend to color coordinate my food to the dishes I use. I find that the shamrock green plate goes with little to nothing.
Paint chips: Can’t get enough of these. They are how Matt and I fell in love. They are what our wedding invitations looked like.
Eating the colors:When I was a painter, I struggled for years to write an artist statement. I knew it was supposed to sound smart and academic and place myself somewhere in a historic context. The only thing I could come up with was, “I love the pretty colors. I want to squeeze the tubes of paint into my mouth and eat them.” My friend Jeff told me this is his favorite kind of artist statement. And I trust his opinion.
If you like em’, shoot em!: The motto of one of the best vacations I ever had. My friend Sasha and I decided to go on a self-made artist’s retreat in La Paz and Todos Santos, Mexico. We spent 10 days writing, drawing, and painting in our journals, as well as “collecting colors” as we called it. We would see a beautiful juxtoposition of color {peeling red paint on a restaurant wall with a lime green bucket and mop leaning against it} and we’d say to each other in our best southern hunter’s drawl, “If you like it, shoot it!” and snap away with the camera. This is the very best way to travel.
