Color me…neutral.
Color—my favorite thing to talk about and play with and really do just about anything in relation to.
As part of the Sock Club for the past two years, we have done some in depth color studies. I really love doing these, and do not really have the opportunity to do them with every shipment.
So, I have decided that we should also do them here, where we can all be involved. Since it is fall and the turn back to the earth, we are going to start with the oh so warm and comforting brown.
I have been musing over this idea and how I want to approach it for a few weeks now (I am a little slow these days). Right after Oregon Flock and Fiber, I received a very interesting email from another dyer with a question that at first glance seemed simple enough but the longer I sat with it, the more thought provoking it was.
She wanted to know why someone so consumed with color wears such neutral colors. (I wore shades of gray that weekend.)
It took a bit to answer her because it did give me pause.
The obvious answer is I am not a small woman and honestly these are the colors that look best on me, or at least I think they do. I like to use bright colorful pieces like scarves as accents to my neutral self.
The more I thought about this and also about brown and color in general, I realized that her question gave me pause because she was curious as to how a person who obviously has a love affair with color did not decorate themselves head to toe with it. Since it is not the first time I have been asked this question, and most probably will not be the last, well back to the thinking…
So why is this true for me? I have seen a lot of obvious colorful people all decorated on the outside with what I assume is an expression of what they (at least) like. And you know I admire those colorful souls that can pull that off and carry it well. That is most certainly not me. It actually makes me feel a little queasy, and I now know one of the biggest reasons why.
I need to be neutral because what is true for me is I immerse my whole self in whatever palette I am exploring. I experience it on a cellular soul level and almost become one with whatever hue or shade or tone I am loving at that moment. I know it sounds corny as hell but nonetheless it is true for me.
It’s actually my general approach to life. I am a full immersion kind of girl. This approach does create problems for me every once in a while but mostly it leads me to very rich and rewarding experiences. I cannot imagine life any other way and certainly not the color part of it.
I would be very interested to hear from other dyers or artists as to their feelings and experience about our art.
So stay tuned for my first installment of Color Immersion depravedDyer style beginning with case study #1: All That Is Brown.
