I’m enrolled in a master craftsmen program around color for embroidery design, one of my passions.  And no, we’re not talking about embroidering kittens from someone else’s pattern onto a pillow case.   It’s really fiber art, but when I say that — no one knows what I’m talking about.  But back to the color theory class.

My first assignment is

“Color symbolism: An essay on color symbolism in various cultures and two stitched pieces demonstrating traditional and nontraditional color harmony.”

Color, a Natural History

I figured I’d start with the book: Color, A Natural History of the Palette. So far, it’s really, really interesting.  Lots of great context on the social/historical/cultural implications of colors.  Totally surprised by some of what I’m finding. Frankly, I’ve only read the first chapter and am completely stunned by how fascinating “ocher” is and how the color is found and created in natural settings.

The book ranges from the eminently practical to the ethereal and metaphysical.  Here’s a couple of my favorite quotes so far.  (I love having a Kindle — I don’t have to type these!)

The first challenge in writing about colors is that they don’t really exist. Or rather they do exist, but only because our minds create them as an interpretation of vibrations that are happening around us.

The best way I’ve found of understanding this is to think not so much of something “being” a color but of it “doing” a color.

But, in simple terms, coloring can be divided into two main causes: chemical and physical.

The sense that light is a manifestation of the glory of the sacred—that the numinous is held within the luminous—is common to almost every faith.

That last one was in respect to why a particular indiginous people chose a more shimmer shade of ochre that had a rich deposit of hematite in it, rather than a flatter one that was offered by outsiders.  The cultural implications  are really what I am finding most fascinating.

It has me thinking a lot about how we use color to communicate things we could never express verbally.