The Nature of Brown

Did you know according to surveys brown is the least liked color in all of Europe and the United States? I mean I know it isn't the prettiest color, but come on! Is it really that bad?

Driving up Parley's Canyon today I noticed a lot of brown. All the pretty golden leaves from the last couple of weeks had dried up. I started thinking about how much brown there is in nature. Brown is so earthy, so absolutely natural. One of my favorite smells is, in the spring, when you are planting or even walking around and you can smell all of that soil. It smells fresh and new and is also brown!

Photo courtesy of Dirt Matters

and then there is the matter of my favorite treats....

THE END!
Photo courtesy of Clark Books

   

Yum!
Photo courtesy of Meaningful Eats

(Brown is my favorite food group!)

See Brown isn't so bad!
Photo courtesy of  My Baking Addiction

So, if brown is the color of all of these yummy treats (and many more) why don't many people like it? Likely it is because it is common and maybe just a little boring.

What do I mean by that? Well it turns out that brown is the second most common hair color and the most common eye color. There seems to be a stereotype that people, especially women, with brown hair(brunettes) are more serious, stable, and smart. In at least one study they were described as independent, self-sufficient, and intelligent.  I guess "independent, self-sufficient, and intelligent" aren't very exciting, but they definitely aren't bad.

It turns out there is a reason why I seem to be so comfortable with brown, I am a brown.  Not really in the sense of skin color or favorite color, but in the personality sense!

There are many traits to the personality of brown, and most of them actually describe me!
If you are a "brown" according to color psychology, you are most likely:

• honest, down-to-earth person with both feet planted firmly on the ground.
• steady and reliable and quietly confident.
• friendly and approachable, genuine and sincere.
• have a keen sense of duty - I take my responsibilities very seriously.
• a loyal and trustworthy friend, supportive and dependable

It's strange to see yourself in print!  

Brown personalities are also homebodies and prefer family to other activities and people.  They tend to like simple things that are comfortable and of good quality.  They like everything in its place, and prefer to know exactly what is going on before they commit - no surprises please!  

I began to think more seriously about my "brownness"... this is me in bullet points!

We browns will work hard to change a situation that seems unjust or unfair. Like others, I have a strong need for security and a sense of belonging, and see life as a struggle believing that it wasn't meant to be easy. But probably the most descriptive phrase of browns and of me?

I prefer to stay in my own safe little world - I don't like my little world to be upset by anything, just ask my mom.

This is new information for me because I had never thought about what color has to do with your personality or feelings before. The weirdest part about this is that, if you know me I am sure you will agree, I fit the description for brown perfectly!

So here's to all the wonderful shades of brown in the world!

It's Not All in Black and White!

What do you notice about every word in every book that you have ever read?
Even if you aren't paying attention to it, the words are all black, but the pages are white. Why is that?

A section of The Tale of Desperaux  By: Kate DiCamillo
You can find more about it here

Well I have an idea. In art class when you are drawing, in architecture, interior design, even in writing, what do you always hear about? Contrast, contrast, contrast!

Contrast is what makes things easy to see and read. I guess it makes sense then why every book you have read is written with contrasting colors. But there must be something special about black and white.
If you look at your basic color wheel you can easily see that all of the contrasting colors are opposite each other.

Color Wheel
Photo Courtesy of Five Star Painting

Wait a minute, where is the black and white?!

It turns out that black and white are not on the color wheel because a lot of people don't think that they are colors. I didn't really understand this so I did a bit of research. I found that there is actually some "scientific" debate on whether or not black and white are colors. Depending on what type of scientist is responding, multiple answers are given. For example if you ask experts in the graphic arts industry if black and white are colors, they might respond that since color is generated by light, white will be a color and black will not. This is because black is the thing you get in the absence of light.  If you ask an artist whether or not black and white are colors, they are likely to respond based on their understanding of pigments and you will get the opposite answer because white is the absence of pigments.

I found this new information very interesting...

Questioning whether black and white are even colors strikes me as weird, because black and white are very important to, well, everything.  They are how you get all of the shades, tints and everything in between (Like when you are in the paint store watching them make your paint color, every shade depends on how much black or how much white they add). It seems strange to me that something so important is being debated as to whether or not it is real!
                       
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My love for contrast leads me to deeper thoughts about black and white.  In many ways the colors black and white don't represent those two colors, but always represent contrast.  Black and white are used to make a complicated argument simple, but sometimes too simple.

Black and white can represent a fight against our personal dark sides, which we know is bad and often keeps us from doing the right thing.  We all have parts about us that come out sometimes. Our dark sides, no one likes them but we all have them. They come out when we least expect it and we use our understanding of good and "light" to balance the "dark".

The fight against "evil" goes under this category as well. Think about it, in every movie you have ever watched there is always a "bad" guy and a "good" guy, or a protagonist and and antagonist. Either name works but there always is one of each.  Black represents the dark side of humanity, and white, the fight against evil in the world.  Why does the bad guy always wear black?

Maleficent
Photo Courtesy of Globe and Mail 

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Maybe most disturbing to me is the contrast that black and white causes in humans of different races.  The civil rights movement seems like it could be another contrast between black and white, except that it really isn't at all.

Think about it,  have you ever seen a "white" person...

White Figure
Photo Courtesy of Stock Photo

Or a black one?

Black Figure
Photo Courtesy of Cliker

I thought not!

How do we describe people of different skin tones?  We say they are either black or white. Really, it is not only black and white.  There isn't even a black or white skin tone! It isn't really a contrast of color, but a contrast of beliefs and understanding. I think it's stupid that skin tone somehow got caught up in this idea of contrast, because it seems to represent a difference that shouldn't be there at all.

So my parting thought on black and white?
             Make sure when you are referring to "black" and "white" that you are really wanting to explore contrast, understanding that contrast is not a judgement of good or evil, or the value of a fellow human.
                                                                                                                             

A Color For All Seasons

Behind Every Good Season is Color...
YELLOW!!!!

I always thought that yellow was a summer color.  I mean think about it!  Summer yellow is bright, fun, happy, all the things that make summer, well, summer. 

A warm summer day be without the sun would be dark , gloomy, and     

Grove Beach, Clinton, CT

cold, definitely not summer.  What would a fun day at the beach be without the golden, yellow sand? Definitely not the beach.

What good would a lemonade stand be without sweet-tart yellow of lemonade? Not sure, but certainly not summer.

Photo courtesy of K Customables

It turns out when you Google "summer yellow" the most popular topic is squash recipes.  I wasn't even thinking food!

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It turns out though, my favorite season for yellow isn't even summer.  I love Fall! The piles and piles of leaves!  It is a sea of yellows, golds, oranges and reds.  But yellow against a background of dark green pine is a spectacular thing.

 

Photo Courtesy of Wallpaper Den

Leaves on Ecker Hill

Being in the Rocky Mountains in the Fall, you can't help but notice the colors are more brilliant because of the contrasting golden, yellow aspen leaves.  In addition to being pretty to look at, changing colors is also very functional. Yellow leaves are a sign that the trees will begin to shut down for winter. Chlorophyll, which is green, starts to disappear from the leaves which lets us see other colors that have been in the leaves all along. 

Once again Google surprised me, when I searched "fall yellow" I thought that my search would be dominated by sites with leaf pictures. Instead all I found were Yellow Jackets!! Who knew that people were so concerned about bees in the fall?



 
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Photo courtesy of The Beat

What about winter? I don't often think about color in the winter and certainly not yellow, but after a few minuets of thought I realized there is plenty of yellow things to think about in the winter.

Photo courtesy of Original Ski Posters

Of course there is the warm, crackling, yellow flames but also apparently, according to Google(once again), there is a huge yellow fashion trend in the winter.
If you look up winter yellow all you get are clothes, clothes and more clothes, although this fashionable look is by far my favorite!

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Photo courtesy of Pinterest

Spring has, by far, the most variety of yellows of all the seasons. 

Photo courtesy of Pintrest

What with all the flowers, clothing, and of course baby chicks you can find practically every shade of yellow imaginable!

When searched on Google there are a couple of different thing that come up. First is, of course the Spring Edition of the Yellow Pages , which is not surprising. What I found interesting though is that there are several towns in the U.S that are called "Yellow Springs". Who knew?







With all of the good feelings yellow sends my way each season, I decided to explore the psychological  meaning of it and turns out... I am WAY off base! According to Color Psychology  "In the meaning of colors, yellow inspires original thought and inquisitiveness." Yellow is a symbol of ideas that adds meaning to experience, which could be why I see yellow across seasons. Although the psychology of yellow could account for my random thinking, it doesn't really help me understand the emotions that yellow seems to give.  

It made me curious, wondering if I am the only "seasonal and emotional yellow" person out there.  For some more information on this colorful topic I decided to ask some trusted friends what they thought about yellow.  Here are some responses I got:

Photo courtesy of Pyramid Flowers

• Sunshine: which I am sure we can all relate to during the summer

• Sunflowers

• Summer (feeling better that am I not the only one)
• I also got dead grass and pudding (banana pudding?)

As you can see there was some diversity in the answers that I received, but not too much that is a sign of originality or inquisitiveness!