I have a goal, well, I have many goals, but one big goal I have this year is to encourage people to embrace color.
Why the fear? I find myself constantly wondering. We were at an event and a woman came up to me and told me how much she loved my outfit (I was wearing my orange leather coat from Morocco with a dress and long black boots) and that even though she wasn’t dressed up, she loved seeing me dressed up.
That also happens with color– people tell me how much they like my color-filled work. And yet they’re wearing black and afraid of expressing it themselves.
Maybe I have been lucky that my mom encouraged color (“That store was dead inside!” she might exclaim after going somewhere that she felt had no color) and then later it was the same with my friend Bonnie when my former husband and I bought our first house.
“Live with it for a while,” she had suggested, noting that I’d then know what colors to paint the rooms. And she was right– within several years all the white walls, except the hallway, were painted a color.
I started small, or light, and gradually worked my way into bolder colors, sometimes choosing several colors for one room, that way everything didn’t feel like it was shouting too much. People thought I was crazy to paint my kitchen lime green, but once the white cabinets and colored tile were in place, it all came together.
It’s the same with my clothes. I used to wear a lot of navy blue. When I married the first time, I used navy blue as my color. My chosen towels were navy blue. There was navy blue everywhere. I ran in a lot of black and dark colors, making me feel as dull and drab as a Midwestern winter day.
But at some point I wanted to be something more; I didn’t want to be a piece of paneling, blending into a wall.
Color makes a dark day feel happy, color makes me feel happy. I get more compliments when I wear color.
Life is too short, wear color, paint a room a happy hue. Carry a handbag with a fun print and pattern.
And you’ll see how much better life can be. With color.