what color is orange ??

Think autumn. What color comes to mind? Orange of course!

Pumpkins, squash, turning leaves, sunsets…

As I was going through my cupboards, assembling linens and textiles for autumn projects, there is an array of gold, oranges, and browns. All lovely. Which made me wonder, of course, just what color is orange. And thinking about it, I realized that there is really no such thing!

It was Sir Isaac Newton, I think, bored one winter, who discovered the color spectrum. And to blow your mind, he observed that the colors we know don’t actually exist in the objects we see. They are the perceptions our brains make, based on the reflection of light. We interpret different wavelengths of light as different colors. So, my orange dahlia really has no color of its own?   At night, in the dark, it is truly colorless?   I try to let it sink in: colors don’t really exist…

whoa.

Apparently, these different colors, that don’t really exist, can influence the body as well. Stimulating the senses, and raising blood pressure. Or calming and quieting our mood. Powerful stuff. So, what about orange? Contemporary artist Wolf Kahn calls orange “blatant and vulgar”. If you want to peek at how some others have reacted, check out more about orange.  What about you? I’d love to know what emotions the color ORANGE stirs in you. I know I’m feeling its energy and liveliness as I begin sewing!!

As the breeze cools the maples on the hill behind the house, and our first frost could be any time now, something stirs in me.  I'm ready to get back to the studio and finish my new autumn pillows...
                                           In Stitches,
                                                       Carolyn