Zacatecas, Guanajuato, and Queretaro: Different Vibrant Colors
Action
In Zacatecas, Guanajuato, and Queretaro, we walked around and enjoyed the colors.
Zacatecas
Guanajuato
Queretaro
Reflection
A couple years ago I began to regularly wear brightly colored t-shirts. Besides the benefits for bicycle safety, I mainly switched because vibrant colors conveyed to me a sense of optimism, change, and possibility. Different vibrant colors side by side added an extra sense of diversity and somewhat subversive energy. Walking around the streets in Mexico, I felt that same energy from the diverse colors of the buildings, cars, and signs.
To me, displaying different vibrant colors not only provides personal energy, but also makes a subtle political statement. In the US and Canada at least, we are socialized to wear clothes of certain colors and live in buildings of certain colors. Businessmen and politicians wear dark suits with standard blue or red ties. Our houses are often red brick or white wood panels, or perhaps some shade of gray or brown. Sure, we could in theory wear bright orange shirts and live in lime green houses, just as we could in theory turn our businesses into cooperatives or switch all the television airwaves back to public control. But we don’t. Or alternately, if we can deviate from socialized norms of clothing and housing, perhaps we might find it easier to experiment in other ways as well.
Granted, this is likely all rather minor, but is it merely coincidental that the rainbow is a queer sign, or that orange and green are the colors of the leftist New Democratic Party in Canada?
Question
How do colors affect your thoughts and actions?
3 Comments:
At 2:47 PM, Jen said…
There is a language to color, and it's always a consideration, even if it isn't a conscious decision.
I think it's interesting that there seems to be so much vivid color in poorer countries ... it does seem to add a positive energy to a place that could easily be dismal. And it seems that wealthier areas have more subdued colors - is that because it would be poor taste to flaunt your wealth with vivid colors? I'm not sure. This is a broad generalization, of course.
There is a house here in Savannah in the Victorian District - so much controvery. The owners - who live in DC, but who's daughter used to work with me - painted the house very very bright, vivid colors. The whole neighborhood is in an uproar - they consider it poor taste, and blame the "non-resident" owners for ruining their property values. The point that traditional Victorian colors were not always subdued is kind of lost on them. But it's amazing how, with poverty and crime and tons of other issues, that people are arguing over the colors of a house.
For the record, my favorite color is green, though I've grown to love hot pink and orange - my wedding flowers were amazing and I never thought I would ever identify with those colors. Am I changing? Am I expanding my views? Who knows . . .
Jen
At 8:29 PM, lernerm said…
I prefer neutral colors that don't show stains and dirt - less to worry about washing clothes and the like. But there are many studies on the effects of color on behavior. Red pills for example are regarded by patients as more potent that white ones -= at least in western society. The emotional significance of colors is affected by our society - is pink a sign of feminitity? in America perhaps, but not in other cultures. Lack of color, or more accurately, lack of bright light, is of course a key factor in our sense of well being, as anyone with seasonal affective disorder can attest to. One wonders also if a society in which everyone dyed their hair bright colors would have rebels who shocked everyone by having black, brown or blonde hair. The effects of color on public buildings and places is also worth considering from a planners point of view - a fresh coat of paint, a green yard can do wonders for a community sense of well being.
At 7:37 AM, Anonymous said…
josh- well, an anecdote on how colour affects me...i remember when i met you, after a while of haning out, i thought to myself, "...its really nice that josh wears brightly coloured shirts. i really like that". i like the solid coloured shirts. -brooke
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