Thursday, October 11, 2007

On yellow.



Studying yellow in this week's painting class stirred up a lot of thought on my own relationship with the hue. Honestly, yellow has never been one of my close color friends. Sure, I have used it in paintings, but generally only to highlight another color. Also, I have next to no yellow pieces in my wardrobe. None of my walls are painted yellow. I have always sort of resisted working on my Manipura Chakra, which is associated with the color yellow. Once I began to account for the lack of yellow in one area of my life, the void kept cropping up. Well, my friends, I am going to immerse myself in yellow this week.




First things first, I thought it would be appropriate to learn a bit more about yellow, starting with its shades and working through its impact on the psyche. Incidentally, there are gobs of resources cropping up on the web with respect to color and color psychology. Some of my absolute favorites are Rachel Perl's blog, the always fantastic Decor8, and one of my favorite podcasts ever with Marisa Haedike, Rachel Perl and Holly Becker (of Decor8).


Yellow has superficially been associated with happiness, joy and optimism (think about those little yellow smily faces), but apparently it creates feelings of fear, frustration and anger. Perhaps this is due to a connection between the physiological impact it has on the psyche. Apparently, yellow reflects a lot of light and this tires the eye more than any other color. I don't know about you, dear reader, but if I am tired (or even have just tired eyes), I am more likely to succumb to frustration.




Also, yellow is associated with the Manipura Chakra, or the solar plexus chakra. This is your power chakra. Your fire chakra. Interestingly enough, it is associated with the eyes and one's sense of sight.


I've been making some yellow art and found some crazy inspiring yellow images while flickring, so there is more yellow to come! Keep in touch.

2 comments:

  1. Mmmmmm. Yellow.

    So, dearest, why do we always paint our kitchens yellow?

    Is it that we are frustrated with our cooking? Or our stinky family who never eat what we make?

    Or is it that we are optimistic and in anticipation about the fruit of our labors?


    Maybe that is why there is so much s_x in the kitchen??!

    Of COURSE!

    That's it!

    It's due to our frustrated anticipation, anger thereof, resulting fire chakra, and optimism about the coming act in the kitchen!

    You're genius, Kelly!

    Bring on more yellow!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bethany,

    I know! I have been mulling this over in my head all week now. What is the story with yellow?! Why is it such an emotional catalyst? I'm looking out for the yellows that bring out calm and creativity.


    Candid Cool,
    Thanks for stopping by the blog! I definitely have noticed a void of yellow in my wardrobe and am starting to piece together why that might be.
    : )

    ReplyDelete

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