Musings on Color in the Concrete Jungle

Musings on Color in the Concrete Jungle by Amanda Michele Art

“Color is my daylong obsession, joy, and torment.”
— Claude Monet

I open the curtains wide every morning at 7(ish) when I wake up to greet the day. I’m like a plant that needs the brightness to survive. I know I’m not the only one who wilts a bit during these long gray winters. From the sky to the street, everything is meh. Without the trees, glowing green, or flowers in their little fenced in islands that dot the sidewalks, what is a colorphile to do? Let’s just say, thank goodness for street artists.

The mural above is by Maya Hayuk and it lives just a few blocks away from where I work. Since it’s been up, I’ve been soaking it in. This and the mural by my apartment by David Sepulveda give me a jump start of color daily. It’s art like this that gives a city life no matter the season. But I must say that the surrounding grays sure make these colors pop. I guess it’s good for something, making the brights shine brighter and for that, I can love it. I guess.

It’s not so far off to say that I need color to feel alive. It’s been shown through studies that individual colors can impact your mood and inspire feelings. Any artist could have told you that, but it’s nice to have the hard facts sometimes. Pink can soothe you or if it’s electric it can excite you like it’s sister red. Orange is energetic and says look at me! Purple is fascinating because it’s rarer to find in nature so it can feel exotic and surreal, while ever present green is so well recognized, it calms us like an old, trusty friend.

I carry these little drops of explosive color in my pocket through the day and bring it home to splash on my watercolor paper and wait out the winter, thankful for the sustenance until spring comes again. Have any street artists I should check out to get my fix? It feels like this winter is never-ending. Do you have any colors that immediately make you feel things? Anything that jumpstarts your soul?