The Adventure Is in the Journey. . . Waking up each day presents me with the opportunity to decide how I am going to perceive what I see on the other side of the door. Perception is reality and so, I can create my own reality. Every choice I make is the creation of a new reality.
Living in the peacefulness of the desert environment allowed me to decide to experience the excitement of color. Without being overwhelmed by the cacaphony and hysteria of city life, I can see the subtle color in what others would call a hot, drab, lifeless environment. What could be more beautiful than the kalidascope of colors that are the Chocolate Mountains at sunset? What can be more surprising than barely seeing the many-shaded green and brown lizard as it skitters away when my foot shifts the rock under which it was dozing? My eyes are now seeing true color. I was surprised one day after I had painted the back wall, to look through some watercolors I had done over a year ago and find that in the watercolor, I had painted the back concrete wall purple–during the landscaping, I painted it a cool, cornflower blue.
While we were relandscaping, we decided that we also needed to paint the house. Most houses in the desert are some shade of earth-tone beige. The house is a mid-century modern, flat-roofed home and its previous earth tones did little to enhance its presence. We wanted a color that would contrast with the earth and draw attention to the bright yellows and hot pinks of the new native plants we had planted in the yard. We spent many evenings sitting in the backyard and gazing at the mountains and the sunset sky beyond the house, and finally, we chose to paint the house in sky-tones. We chose corn-flower blue, silver and white. The house is now transformed by color. And I see vibrant color everywhere I go.
I have decided that since I have painted all the inside and outside walls of the house, that I now must turn my re-discovered love of color to paper. When I was a child I loved to draw; I learned what I know now of color from our box of Crayola 64. Now, in this next chapter of my life, I will return to the colors and practice what I always loved to do, but that which I always had, until now, to put aside in order to study and to accomplish things that would make me a “success”. In this blog, I will write about my new reality and will share my adventure with color.
