On Colors

I remember to this date the discussions we had during one of the art classes I attended in my high school years. The topics are : What is your favorite color? What you think is the most beautiful color? What you think is the ugliest color? After the heated debate, this became clear to me:

- Every color is equally beautiful. No color is ugly by itself (Think about yourself) .
- While no color is ugly by itself, some colors become ugly when in combination with other color/colors. There is just ugly color combination. "Ugly" in the sense that they don't go well together (Think about your ex/exes you left behind). The reason why they don't go well together is that they are not presented in the nature so our eyes are not accustomed to (Think that you and your ex/exes are not meant to be in the first place).
- If you don't know how to combine colors, go outside to draw inspiration from the nature. White clouds on blue sky, yellow dandelions on green grass, rainbow... Red and green color combination has been tabooed by Chinese. I knew then that was so biased. Red roses on green leaves. Da?

Then I had better understanding on colors when I worked for a Hong-Kong based printing company. In their printing factory, there are two types of color printing machines: one is three-color printer and the other is four-color printer. All the colors on the color wheel are derived from 3 colors: not counting black, magenta-red, yellow and cyan-blue; or 4 primary color themes: magenta-red, cyan-blue, yellow and black. By changing the color percentage, you get a different color theme in a color wheel (Think about changing your attitude or lowering your standard for more options). From there you can find a whole spandex of color family and color harmony (Think about your family and your 100 closest friends). However, there is a group of stubborn colors that no other colors can mix into. They don't easily match with other colors. If you have one of those colors in your design, the printing company will charge you for a separate film cost (Think about those eccentric people you know). Those are specialty colors such as gold, silver, bronze...(Think about those of your rich relatives who have never lent you a dime.)

Often, colors are described as cold and warm as how we relate to the outside weather, as calm or lively as how we relate to our inner mood, or as soothing or loud as how we relate to music. Being color-blind is considered disability. Oops! Aren't we supposed to be color-blind when it comes to people?!

I read a joke in the Reader's Digest many years ago. A man walks into a bar. After sitting down with the drinking menu, "You have Blue Hawaiian and White Russian. What is the difference?" The man asks. "Da, color?" The bartender says.

Color is so essential to art, and to life for that matter. I won't be a bit surprised if one day this is in our dollar bills: In color, we trust.