All about aubergine.

Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions for my new dark and dreamy purple colourway’s name. I love playing this naming game so much. I think we need to do this more often. Somebody should get on this. (I know… that would be me.)

I don’t know about you, but I especially like seeing how a hue speaks to each of us individually. There are times when that personal translation is of such a varying spectrum that I wonder if we’re all seeing the same colourway and other times when there’s almost complete agreement, its like we’re one mind. At this point, I could go into how we actually aren’t seeing the same colours and the many reasons why, from computer monitors and lighting to how our brains work, but I have a huge to-do list today, and I am a woman on a mission. We should have this chat some other time though; it’s fascinating.

My youngest daughter and I interpret colour so differently that I sometimes wonder if she is indeed mine.  If I am feeling particularly evil—her teenage angst sometimes gets the better of me—I’ll pick a chromatic argument with her. 

Me: “Wow honey, that’s a beautiful sea green top your wearing. It brings out the green in your eyes.”

Sophie: “ Ummm…duh mom, it’s blue.”

Me: “No… it’s more green than blue. Look at it in the light. Green-blue, not blue.”

I then start in on saturation levels and she tells me I’m colour blind, which I respond to with a laugh and snappy retort about what I do for a living. At this point I usually get an eye roll and a sigh. Great fun—well, for me, at least. Keep in mind that this is the same kid who calls me “colour obsessive,” so I think she’s messing with me as much as I with her. So…indeed her mother’s daughter, for sure.

Anyway. Must keep on topic. Remember the to-do list.

We seem to have an inspirational (sort of) consensus on this hue that falls into about three popular categories. We have the berry, (specifically blackberry) one, its dreamy, mysterious, sexy counterpart, and the kind of dark, goth camp.

I’m having one of my Gemini moments where I can see all sides of every little thing. Where I flip flop back and forth, all the while wishing that someone else would come make this decision for me while knowing perfectly well that I am way too much of a control freak to let that happen. (Yeah. It’s great to be me.)

I can see how each and everyone one of these names would be perfect for this colourway.  So, I’ve sat here with my skeiny friend in hand, and we’ve tried them all on. And they all fit like a glove (or a mitten or a scarf…).  A very blackberry hue, but also inky like a tattoo; it’s Deep Purple and a bit Cured, most certainly “Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’” and who would not want to be named Pleione? Such a lovely sounding word. See my dilemma?

All last week, as I drove Sophie to school, we were blessed with a few exquisite sunrises. We drive into Portland from Scappoose, which is into the rising sun over the mountains and down the Williamette.  A magical stunning view that makes our drive not only doable, but an uplifting experience some mornings. Last week, every environmental nuance came into play giving us, deep smokey purple mountains, the exact same hue as our dreamy blackberry bruise. As the sunrise illuminates the morning twilight shadows, there was the briefest of moments where that purple mountain majesty rolled off the mountains, down the river, and onto the valley floor. A little fog or mist presence (We live in Oregon there is always water in the air.) and… when it hits the river then what we have is some serious smoke on the water. A heart melting, soul warming, tingling from head to toe moment in living colour.

So maybe…

Smoke on the Water (Courtesy of Purple Mountains’ Majesty).

Not colour obsessed at all. No way. Not me.