Fleurs Series: RED
To the Sun
Ground Cover
Luminescent
Seeing Red
Enticement
ColorFULL of Meaning: RED
ColorFULL of Meaning: RED
The next series of posts will delve into the meanings, associations, and symbolism of color…starting with the color wheel above. We have explored the Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Colors…let’s go deeper with those now, and learn a bit about color psychology. Now that’s a horse of a different color…but not necessarily a dark horse. Off to the color FULL races…starting with the ever powerful, ever provocative, unique hue of RED….
The primary associations we make with RED are heat, fire and blood, (“red-handed”),
and by further association, wounds, pain, war, victims, and revolution, warmth, sunset, the tropics, excitement, and enthusiasm. Have you ever spoken in a “fiery” manner, or been told, “You’ve got fire in your belly!”?
In Astrology, RED is associated with Aries, the hot-tempered, impatient, aggressive leader, and is the symbolic color for Mars, god of war. We know what color Mars the planet is!
RED also associates with life, love, passion, activity, devotion, eroticism, strength and sacrifice,
as well as aggression, intensity, fierceness, destruction and death. Covering the gamut, RED is a color of extremes.
Physiologically RED energizes, stimulates, excites, initially raises blood pressure, and stimulates the appetite. A good choice of color for dining rooms, restaurants, and other eating areas.
RED can be provocative, (waving the red flag at the bull to get it to charge), a call to action, the signal of revolution. It is the color of combat, rebellion and dominance.
RED can be the color of hate…
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or the color of love…
Attention-getting RED may be the most dynamic of all colors, dominating other hues. It is used across cultures in branding, marketing, publicity and advertising.
The lens of the eye has to adjust to focus red light wavelengths, thus RED advances, making red objects seem closer then they actually are.
On an energetic level, RED corresponds to the Basis Chakra, symbolizing life, fertility, and reproduction, and influencing the sex glands and organs.
As regards to Synesthesia, or associations with other senses RED associates this way: Sound- loud, trumpet. Temperature: warm-hot. Taste/Odor: sweet, strong. Tactile: firm, solid. Weight: heavy.
On a psychological level, RED is instinctive, and sets an alarm mood. Our reaction to it is primarily emotional.
In short, RED is a powerful color, the color of power, and through our own experience on all levels shows us the Power of Color!
Primary Colors: the Red, Yellow and Blue of It
Primary Colors: the Red, Yellow and Blue of It
Primary. Colors. Those that cannot be created by any combination of two or more existing colors. Those from which all other (subtractive) colors are created: Red. Yellow. Blue.
The blue here is a bit aqua…(has some yellow in it, reducing its primary blue-ness)…but the Blue, Red, Yellow concept remains the same.
Primary colors standing tall…with both an aqua, and a “true” blue completing the range of primary hue.
Red, Blue, Yellow (with a bit of orange hue thrown in) are bookish interspersed with black and white.
The Red of Red
The Yellow of Yellow
The Blue of Blue
Blue, Yellow and Red grace a table setting, flanked by silver, white, gray.
Primary Colors…from whence all hue begins…and the first color story.
The Power of RED
The Power of RED
Whatever you want to say about it…the color RED elicits strong emotions. What are the associations and meanings of this volatile color, and what does it symbolize to us?
An effect of light: COLOR
From an energetic point of view, red is related to the Basis chakra (energy center), and influences the sex glands, and sexual energy. It symbolizes life and reproduction. Studies show that it is associated with both love and, to a lesser degree, hatred, as well as life, heat, fire and blood.
Life Force
Red is arousing, stimulating, and exciting, relating to both passion, strength, activity and warmth, as well as aggression, rage, intensity and ferocity. One aspect, it would seem, that can be agreed upon, is that red is energizing!
I am RED hear me roar!
Synesthesia, the experience of a sensory “cross-over“, ” is a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.“. Thus a color may elicit associations with particular sounds, tastes, smells, or tactile sensations. In the case of RED, is associates with loud sounds, specifically, the trumpet, as well as sweet and strong tastes and odors. Red’s tactile association is firmness and solidity.
Firmness, Solidity, Strength: holding it all together
What is in common here? Strength. No half-way measures here…RED packs the proverbial “punch”. Indeed, if we are punched, the area where we are impacted more often becomes red quickly, as the the blow brings up our actual blood in response so healing/repair can begin immediately.. Seeing Red anyone? Well, here’s hoping that doesn’t happen to You!
Let’s look at happy, healthy, healing and sometimes outrageous but always energizing uses of RED!
Brilliant RED, setting off the adjacent gray, adds fire to this exterior architectural color scheme! Symmetry is avoided, but balance is achieved.
Red does double duty here energizing both door and address numbers, again framed by cooling gray, which makes the red stand out that much more.
The red door let’s us know exactly where to go to enter this charming Victorian, which also employs grays and blues and a touch of lavender as a counterbalance to the eye-catching accent door and architectural detail.
The red side of this bar ties into other red hues in the flow-through living room, as well as the kitchen rug, and other details not pictured, such as a bright red teapot! Fresh white trim frames and accentuates it.
Red is thought to stimulate the appetite, making it a natural choice for an eating area. In this home, the red of this dining room, and the blue and gold of the adjoining hallway/entry and living room respectively create a potent triad of primary colors!
Red associates with love and the heart, and thus is a natural, life affirming accent wall color choice for an organization like Dress for Success, which helps women prepare for fresh starts in their lives.
The associations of red with grapes and wine may be obvious, especially to those for whom such spirits are their “life blood”. This red accent wall provides a vibrant frame around the vineyard scene.
Red doesn’t always have to cover the wall to have an impact. Above, it is used as an energizing accent, and makes a statement in the context of the painting, textile, and rug. There is just enough to enliven a smallish room, and add warmth, layering and texture to the predominant hues of beige/cream, white and deep blue.
The painting of red with turquoise blue in this narrow hallway packs the proverbial punch, and lights up our senses. The brightness and richness of both these colors holds our attention and really keeps us awake!
Red and turquoise play nice together as strong accents on this painted chair, reminiscent of the Southwestern United States, in both imagery and hue.
Setting each other off like black on white, the green background makes its compliment, red, pop! Loving ladybugs, anyone?
Red is the perfect choice for a sidewalk “sandwich” sign, designed to attract attention, inform, point the way, and draw in customers!
Flying high…the associations are here are clear!
What does RED mean to YOU?!
Color Blossoms: Pink
Color Blossoms: Pink
Well, strike me…pink!
Putting the blossom back in blossom,,,these rich blooms run from red to pink to purple.
This blushing beauty is the essence of the pale pink rose. Wedding, anyone?
Mysterious pink, verging on the purple.
Struck dumb by this pink beauty…
Almost red.
Deep pink, fading to the center…beautiful markings.
Well, by rights, pink is “light” red. A tint of red…or, red with white added.
Our blushing beauty further on in her life cycle.
The joy of lushness.
What does “pink” mean to You?
What does pink “taste” like?
What is Your favorite hue of pink?
May You always be…”in the pink”!
Color Blossoms: Red
Color Blossoms: Red
Nature’s Paint Brush
Luminous Red in the Heart of Dark
Red Plays Well with Others
In the Night Garden
White to Yellow to Orange to Red to Pink
Red glory, transmuting into pink…then glorious yellow.
The Passion and Life Force of Red
The Power of RED: Doors
The Power of RED: Doors
Why use red on a front door?
(Or a side, service or interior door, for that matter?!)
It seems that all can agree that RED is energizing.
Here we explore why…and why red so often greets us as the port of entry into all sorts of spaces.
An earthy, pink-toned red works well on this door, which receives in strong sunlight, with the warm-toned earthy brown house body color.
A deep, strong red door offsets buttery yellow walls, and stands out in a large Pilates studio space without dominating it or taking away from its serenity.
Not a front door here, but strong bright red works just as well on this service door, providing contrast to the complex taupe field hue which dominates the exterior.
Strong red makes this door quite visible and shows us where to go, even behind bars, albeit, decorative ones!
Complimentary greenery flanks this glistening red door, giving it even greater “pop”, and attracting us to the entrance, and the house.
The red door leads our eye to the entry, and offsets the quite brown of the shingles, and potentially somber black shutters and trim.
A less brilliant red makes a quieter statement, but a strong one, nonetheless, the color offsetting the dark steps, and drawing our eye up to it..
Nestled within the entrance alcove, this red door gives relieves the expanse of ochre colored stucco surrounding it.
The red of the door is picked up as an accent color in the trim, and Victorian detailing and ornamentation, adding a sense of fun and whimsy to the entry.
Red on the front door of a Santa Monica mortuary: life affirming, warming, comforting, path finding, getting us where we need to go…inside top face loss, establish ritual to move through it, and do what must be done.
Red side doors of the same mortuary…again, letting us know where we need to go. keeping us energized and focused, doing what we need to do.
Another “cottage” beauty…this bright red door fairly beams out its cheerful, inviting, life-affirming greeting, and seems to say…come in!
What do You think about Red Doors? Do you have a favorite? Please share about it with us in the comments, and your thoughts on why Red Doors persist as a theme in our architectural color culture!
Here’s to energizing entrances to all sorts of spaces!
Seeing RED
Seeing RED
Green master bath and red master bedroom form a complimentary pair
Red door = energy
Rich red layers of glaze create a dining room “intime”
San Francisco’s Dress for Success Boutique uses the butterfly as a symbol of transformation
Benihana’s Restaurant in Cupertino, CA is transformed by bamboo imagery reflecting its interior wall coverings
More cream on white…this time wall covering in a Parisian-inspired San Francisco SOMA District interior
The Benihana mural transforms as it moves across the overhang
Red creates a luxuriant backdrop for dark wood, bright artwork, and mirrors
Red creates pop which animates the bar, and the room
Layers of glaze create lend depth and sensuality to a personal space
Red door = energy… in The Soulful Pilates Studio, San Francisco
Green frames red…bringing the outside in
Humors, Hues, and Healing: Color Symbolism of Yesteryear
Humors, Hues, and Healing: Color Symbolism of Yesteryear
Sunday July 15, 2012, on our Color Muze for Artistically Speaking Talk Show, the Blog Talk Radio brainchild of artist and entrepreneur Rebecca E. Parsons, we delved into the mists of antiquity to explore what my teacher, Frank H. Mahnke, of the IACC-NA (International Association of Colour Consultants/Designers Seminars) has called, “Mystical Color Symbolism.
Rebecca interviewed my old friend and colleague, Joy Conway, decorative painter extraordinaire, owner and lead artist of Funwalls Studio in Albuquerque, NM, a division of her evolving, green artistic enterprise, nmVerde. Joy is also part of Vintage and More, selling vintage items and antiques as part of a collective effort. Although “vintage’ is not necessarily “antiquity”, we found plenty of tie-ins!
We “muzed” about the four-fold system devised by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, (b. ca. 460 B.C, often termed the “Father of Western Medicine”, which connects the four major “humors” (human bodily fluids) with the four “temperaments” (one might term these, personality types) and their color counterparts.
Bear in mind that the hue of each humor, IE, black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm (this is not for the faint of heart!) does not necessarily correspond to the color related to it. No, blood/sanguis, even though physically a shade of red, is related to the cheerful color of yellow, and element of air.
The term for a cheerful, optimistic, hopeful personality…or, temperament is sanguine! Perhaps this humor, blood, runs healthily through the veins of one of this temperament, helping them to be positive, and upbeat!
Let’s take a look at the this fascinating four-fold system.
The humor yellow bile, or “cholos” is associated with the element of fire, and the choleric temperament: passionate, touchy, quick, violent tempered, and active. The choleric temperament is strong, faster changing, a tensed mental state directed towards the outer world. It’s color is red, in modern systems symbolizing aggressiveness, activity and strength.
The humor black bile, or “melas cholos” is associated with the element of earth (not water, as one might intuitively expect given our natural association with blue) , and the melancholic temperament: sad, with a tendency towards melancholy and depression. The melancholic temperament is strong, but slower changing, a tensed mental state directed towards the inner world. It’s color range is blue, blue-violet, and black. It’s counterpart in contemporary color symbolism would be “feeling blue”- IE, sadness, melancholy, and depressiveness.
The humor blood,, or sanguis” is associated with the element of air, and the sanguine temperament: warm-hearted, lively, cheerful, impulsive, with a positive approach to life.. The sanguine temperament is weaker, faster changing, a relaxed mental state directed towards the outer world.It’s color is yellow, which in our modern system symbolizes cheerfulness, vitality, and high-spiritedness. Yellow, in the Hippocratic system relates to the element of air, and the humor of blood, is the color of the sun, and sunlight…perhaps the “life blood” of our planet earth?
The humor phlegm (we all know that one, yes?!) is associated with the element of water (which makes sense when you think about the relationship of phlegm to dampness) and the phlegmatic temperament:stolid, calm, reserved, and hard to rouse to activity. The phlegmatic temperament is weak and slow changing, a relaxed mental state directed towards the inner world. (Think about when you have a cold, and just want to curl up in bed and let the world go by). It’s color range is green, green-blue, and white. Green, in more modern color symbolism, can express withdrawal, quietness and reservation.
Just for fun…here is an excerpt (found on http://www.fisheaters.com/fourtemperaments.html) from the 11th c. Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum, attributed to John of Milano, giving the basic run-down as to the effects of too much of one humor or another:
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If Sanguin humour do too much abound, These signes will be thereof appearing cheefe, The face will swell, the cheeks grow red and round, With staring eies, the pulse beate soft and breefe, The veynes exceed, the belly will be bound, The temples, and the forehead full of griefe, Unquiet sleeps, that so strange dreames will make To cause one blush to tell when he doth wake: Besides the moysture of the mouth and spittle, Will taste too sweet, and seeme the throat to tickle. |
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If Choller do exceed, as may sometime, Your eares will ring, and make you to be wakefull, Your tongue will seeme all rough, and oftentimes Cause vomits, unaccustomed and hatefull, Great thirst, your excrements are full of slime, The stomacke squeamish, sustenance ungratefull, Your appetite will seeme in nought delighting, Your heart still greeued with continuall byting, The pulse beate hard and swift, all hot, extreame, Your spittle soure, of fire-worke oft you dreame. |
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If Flegme abundance haue due limits past, These signes are here set downe will plainly shew, The mouth will seeme to you quite out of taste, And apt with moisture still to overflow, Your sides will seeme all sore downe to the waist, Your meat wax loathsome, your digestion slow, Your head and stomacke both in so ill taking, One seeming euer griping tother aking: With empty veynes, the pulse beat slow and soft, In sleepe, of seas and ryuers dreaming oft. |
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But if that dangerous humour ouer-raigne, Of Melancholy, sometime making mad, These tokens then will be appearing plaine, The pulse beat hard, the colour darke and bad: The water thin, a weake fantasticke braine, False-grounded ioy, or else perpetuall sad, Affrighted oftentimes with dreames like visions, Presenting to the thought ill apparitions, Of bitter belches from the stomacke comming, His eare (the left especiall) euer humming. |
So, what does all this say about our use of color, and the use of color in the architectural space?
I can’t give a definitive response to this query, but take a look at these interiors, and let me know what you think!
Red for the bed…a couple’s romantic red bedroom.
Blue for you…this is where you will stay as a guest in this house…in the blue guest room.
Mellow yellow? The blue guest room’s yellow and deco bath.
Green for clean? This green room is the complementary master bath for the red bedroom above.
What does it all mean? Have we changed that much since 460 B.C? Certainly not our “humors”, nor their hues. If we truly peruse and analyze the ancient Greek scholars, we can probably discover methodologies and means timelessly revealing of the human body, spirit and psyche. At any rate…it is a fascinating area of study and contemplation, and one befitting our Color Muze,on Artistically Speaking Talk Show and Cre8tive Compass Magazine.
if anyone is interested in further humor-ous (or other) exploration, please consider checking out these sites for further fascination, fun and fancy…and maybe a few insights along the way!.
May YOU live long, and healthy.
http://www.greekmedicine.net/b_p/Four_Humors.html
http://www.thecolourworks.com/pdfs/Hippocrates%20the%20Four%20Humours%202.pdf
http://thecolourworks.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/hippocrates-galen-the-four-humours/
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