UPPERCASE #60 by Janine Vangool

for the C R E A T I V E and C U R I O U S

multicolour!

ENCYCLOPEDIA

Volume N The UPPERCASE Encyclopedia of Inspiration encyclopediaofinspiration.com

ENCYCLOPEDIA

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK Dear Reader, I wanted a joyful, exuberant theme for this 60th issue of UPPERCASE magazine. And so, this multicolour issue is a celebration of colour. Lots of it! Colours clashing, contrasting and coordinating. Palettes made of pigment and paint. Colour schemes discovered in found objects, cultivated in the environment and mixed from our imagination. As designers, artists and crafters, colour often plays a central role in our work. It provides inspiration and energy. It sets the mood. It piques our curiosity. It’s both deeply personal and universal. UPPERCASE readers share their favourite palettes and examples of how more is definitely more when it comes to making art! Nearly 15 years ago, I had an inkling of an idea as I searched for a way to express myself as a designer, curator and writer. This magazine has grown into my life’s work as well as a vibrant, generous community of kindred spirits near and far. I am grateful for your support over the years. And if you’re not a print subscriber yet, please join us—subscribing is the very best way to ensure that there will be many more colourful issues to come.

Ja n i n e Vango ol P U B L I S H E R , E D I TO R , D ES I G N E R

g Playin ntage with vi s and button ded discar is a spools of fun way ering Sign up for my newsletter discov ur for free content and an new colo . combos introductory subscription offer: uppercasemagazine.com/free uppercasemagazine.com

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Contents

JA N UA RY F E B RUA RY M A RC H 2 02 4

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U P P E R C A S E

Celebrating 60 issues!

PO OR RT TR RA A II T T B BY Y V V II R RG G II N N II A A H HA AR RO OL LD D P

Welcome Editor’s Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Subscriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Snippets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

TREND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Terrazzo by Lion & Blossom WORTHWHILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Community Knitting Teacher Elizabeth Okeyele-Olatunji C O N T R I B U TO R Meera Lee Patel is a self-taught artist, writer and internationally recognized bestselling author who writes books that help people connect with themselves, each other and the world around them. Her work advocates for greater mental health awareness in children and the grown-ups who care for them. meeralee.com

BEING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Emotional Colour by Meera Lee Patel FRESH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Susan Ballard, Kelley Igo and Ilene Kahn

Fine Print LIBRARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Recommended Reading CREATIVE CAREERS . . . . . . . 18 Ann-Margret Hovsepian

A Vintage Colour Scheme Kelli May-Krenz GALENA , ILLINOIS, USA

I have always loved vintage fabrics, worn book covers, torn bits of time-worn metals (mostly golds). I also have always loved French beauty. I chose this colour palette as I have been creating a new collection with pale blush, soft pink, greens (all shades), creams rich with aged and tea-stained colour. Mix in brilliant antique golds and few vintage pearls this fills me with so much inspiration. Nature is a huge colour provider for me. Natural findings always mix perfectly in my balance of design. I build little layouts as a starting place for most everything I create. I love pretty, and making dream layouts always starts me off in a most creative way. I could not adore this palette more and look forward to the collection I will be releasing in 2024. kellimaykrenz.com @kellimaykrenz

BUSINESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Grow Your Business: Five Ways to Get Knowledgeable Advice by Arianne Foulks illustration by Andrea D’Aquino ECO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Smile Plastics by Joy Vanides Deneen EPHEMERA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 All the Colours Fit to Print by Mark E. Sackett and Melanie Roller

Art & Design GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Multi-Colour Submissions by UPPERCASE Readers ORIG IN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Senescence: Changing Colour through the Seasons by Correy Baldwin photo by Bonnie Peters ABECEDARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Concepts in Multicolour by Lydie Raschka

PROCESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Colour Theories: Artists Annotate Their Works through the Eye of Colour Poppy Dodge Martina Nehrling Sarah Martinez Helen Elizabeth Kaye Sarah Helen More Claire Desjardins Jennifer Candon Deanne Fitzpatrick Lori Seidemann

SKETCHBOOK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 by Paulene Hübsch PERSPECTIVES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Creative Coaching Q+A’s with: Jeanetta Gonzales Sasha DeWitt Kelly Angelovic Tammie Bennett Joy Cho Kellee Wynne Conrad

PARTICIPATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Colour Schemes and Colour Dreams by UPPERCASE Readers

Craft COVER ARTIST . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Margo Selby’s Colourful World by Jane Audas STITCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Fableism Supply Co.: Tales Told through Cloth by Leigh Metcalf

Misc. HOBBY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Of Poetry and Pantone by Brendan Harrison Subscriber Studios . . . . . . . . . . 126 Julia Da Rocha Susan Rienzo Terry J. Walker Looking Forward / Shares . . . . 128

COVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Colour Theories by Andrea Jenkins uppercasemagazine.com

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M AST H E A D

U P P E R CAS E

™

1052 Memorial Dr NW Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 3E2

Janine Vangool P U B L I S H E R , E D I TO R , D E S I G N E R

janine@uppercasemagazine.com C U STO M E R S E RV I C E

for for the the C CR RE EA AT T II V VE E and and C CU UR R II O OU US S™ ™

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Correy Baldwin C O PY E D I TO R

Core Contributors Tamisha Anthony Jane Audas Correy Baldwin Andrea D’Aquino Arianne Foulks Joy Vanides Deneen Brendan Harrison Andrea Jenkins Andrea Marván Kerrie More Meera Lee Patel Leigh Metcalf Lydie Raschka Lilla Rogers Cedric Victor P RI NTE D I N CA N A DA BY T H E P R O L I F I C G R O U P.

Interior pages are printed on 100% post-consumer recycled Rolland Enviro 100.

Sustainability Initiatives Through the Wren Trailblazer fund, UPPERCASE removes two tons of carbon each month with an additional two tons of carbon offset monthly. Please join fellow readers in the Wren Impact forest. wren.co/groups/uppercase

In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, the Métis Nation (Region 3) and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta. 6

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U P P E R C A S E

PUBLISHED I N D E P E N D E N T LY SINCE

2009

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Thank you to all of the talented writers, illustrators, creative collaborators and loyal readers who contributed their talents to this issue of UPPERCASE.

Thank you to everyone who submitted to the open calls for this issue. Even if you weren’t featured within these printed pages, your effort was noticed and appreciated!

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Snippets VA R I EG AT E D

Hedgehog Fibres Hedgehog Fibres is Beata Jezek’s independent dye studio located in Ireland. Beata is not only the company founder, but also its “artistic director/dyer in chief/queen of all things.” The Hedgehog Fibres team makes yarns in beautiful colours—bright and neon, variegated and speckled. “It’s the colours I want to knit with, the colours I want to wear and the colours I can’t live without,” says Beata. “Our range reflects my personal style. From dark, rich and earthy, to crazy, fluorescent and vibrant, depending on my mood, but always colours I love.” In addition to limited-edition Potluck colourways, the website has plenty of free knitting patterns as inspiration, like this baby’s sweater. hedgehogfibres.com

O F A L L ST R I P E S

Row Pinto Row Pinto is a knitwear designer based in London. “Colour is at the heart of all our designs. Our signature, unique and subtle stripes are characterised by our beautiful palettes, where we mix, match and clash colours.” Their ribbon scarf incorporates their signature colours. “The stripes change throughout the length of the scarf to ensure a different look however you choose to wear it.” rowpinto.com

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T H R E A DS Aurifil Swatch Book Italian thread company Aurifil has reimagined their swatches. They are now conveniently housed in 15 removable thread swatch cards showcasing all 270 cotton colours. This is a beautiful resource for quilters and textile artists. shopaurifil.com

P I G M E N T P OST E R

Collecting Colourways Artist Elizabeth Ahlem Clark collects natural pigments. “I use them to make inks and watercolour paints, and then create abstract art. After making paintings of the land with commercial watercolour paints for years, I now make paintings with the land, using materials I gather from the land.” This print depicts a selection of 24 natural pigments collected from various places around western Whatcom County in Washington, USA. elizabethahlem.com

C O LO U R CA R DS

The I Ching Oracle Card Deck Catherine Pilfrey is an art director and meditation teacher who has created a multi-hued card deck of the I Ching. “The I Ching is made up of 64 hexagrams—a combination of six straight and broken lines—that encompass all of life’s experiences. The hexagram cards are represented in a rainbow of 64 colours with unique patterns inspired by Asian, African, Mayan and Aboriginal motifs. Together they communicate the energy and emotion of each hexagram.” The colours illustrate themes such as creative power, joy, retreat, danger and peace. modernichingoracle.com

C O L L A BO R AT I O N

THEY DRAW is a creative community dedicated to showcasing the work of artists and illustrators from around the world through food, travel and garden illustrations. THEY DRAW and UPPERCASE are collaborating to bring you engaging prompts that will be featured in an online gallery and in print in future issues of the magazine. Sign up to our newsletters for all the details! they-draw.com/contact uppercasemagazine.com/free

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T R E N D

terrazzo

Lion & Blossom Lani LaniMacGregor MacGregor&&Leah LeahMoy Moy

s creative partners (and sisters!), we’ve been making home accessories from a nontoxic, sustainably produced, water-based acrylic composite. Each piece is made by hand—mixing, casting, sanding, then polishing, to finally reveal a lovely terrazzo effect. With endless colour combinations, we limited ourselves to eight main base colours and then experimented until we found our favourite palettes. We usually follow a simple formula for choosing colours: base, complementary, dark, neutral and light. In this example, we started with a peachy base, then added a darker terra cotta, aqua to complement, grey as a balanced neutral, and white to help all the hues pop.

lionandblossom.com instagram.com/lionandblossom

The Rocket Bowl’s shape is inspired by the sisters’ favourite sugary treat. Made with non-toxic, sustainably produced, water-based resin, it is sealed with beeswax and finished with a cork bottom. 10

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LL II SS TT

W O R T H W H I L E

R E S O U RC E

An Alphabetical List of Colours Enter “List of colors (alphabetical)” on Wikipedia and you’ll get a list of 1,140 colours. Hover over each entry to display sometimes surprising images and definitions, as well as links to accompany each colour. ALABASTER ANDROID G REEN A T O M I C TA N G E R I N E

Using our creativity for good is one of the best ways we can make a difference. Through design, art and craft—and with our hands and hearts—we can effect change. However small it may seem at first, each incremental effort is still significant.

AUREOLIN B’DA Z Z L E D B LU E CA M B RI D G E B LU E CINEREOUS D E E P S PA C E S PA R K L E D I N GY D U N G E O N ENGLISH VERMILLION ETO N B LU E FIREBRICK FRENCH PINK G LAUCOUS H E L I O T R O P E G R AY H O L LY W O O D C E R I S E JONQUIL L A N G U I D L AV E N D E R LISERAN PURPLE MAUVELOUS M O O N STO N E B LU E NAPIER GREEN NINTENDO RED OFFICE GREEN OX FO RD B LU E PE A RL AQUA P I CTO N B LU E PULLMAN BROWN (UPS BROWN) SAFETY ORANG E SHIMMERING BLUSH S PA N I S H V I R I D I A N T E L E M A G E N TA T E R R A C O T TA THULIAN PINK UROBILIN VA M P I R E B L A C K VIVID CERULEAN WINTER SKY YINMN BLUE ZAFFRE

community knitting teacher

Elizabeth Okeyele-Olatunji L AGOS, N IG E RIA

am a knitting teacher for children, certified by the Craft Yarn Council of America. I am a graduate of textile technology from Yaba College of Technology and the author of a children’s knitting book, Knitting ABC Book: 20 Inspired Patterns for the Young to Explore. I founded Tunnizze Creation, an organization that is passionate about passing on needlecraft skills to the younger generation. Our goal is to teach 20,000 children knitting and crochet skills by 2030 across Africa. What makes me tick is seeing children engaged in handwork. As a young child, books and knitting were my safe place, and giving children—especially those in marginalized communities—an activity to enhance their creative powers is something I am passionate about. Recently I started taking my passion beyond Nigeria, first to children in Kenya and soon to Uganda, Tanzania and beyond. I am currently studying for a professional diploma in education, as I plan to hone my teaching skills and create a tailored curriculum to serve the children I teach. Find your passion, get the necessary skills and experience, and explore. There is so much to be done! Make a living from what you love doing, so you don’t have to worry about boredom! facebook.com/tunnizzecreation @tunnizze

Z I N N WA L D I T E

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B E I N G

emotional colour ||| A R T I C L E A N D I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y

m e era le e p a tel |||

ll summer I wait for the colours to change. One evening in mid-September, I draw my toddler daughter a bath. She looks at the water, hesitating. “Why is the bath green today?” she asks. “Instead of no colour at all.” I look at the water and then to the only window in the bathroom, a small, boxed number with thick, obscured glass. Our home was built in 1905. The window is old. For the past six months, yellow-orange light filled this little room, warm as the air. It moved slowly, like honey, spreading itself thickly over each day. Each morning the sun rose as red as a fresh plum, its rays pooling like a cut fruit across the sky. I watched it swell and fade into dawn, feeling a mixture of gratitude and anticipation. Another day lay wide open before me. Now, the evening light is blue. It filters through our old window and ripples across the bathwater, anointing it as green as the sea. This sea-green is calm and quiet, beginning anew. The emotional effect colour has on us is as much created and learned perception as it is biological response. For years now, I have been rewriting my emotional relationship to colour, discovering what each colour feels like to me when I strip away my inherited ideas of what each one means. When experiencing a strong emotion, I have made a practice of closing my eyes and meditating on that specific feeling. Behind my eyes, each feeling takes on its own specific colour: anticipation is often magenta, hurried, and tinged with canary yellow on the edges. Despair is indigo, and solid—not the watery blue that depression or sadness is often associated with. Sadness itself feels violet—sharp, and as short as its wavelength. Under my closed eyelids, it morphs into pale pink, reminding me to find pleasure in the most complicated of emotions: there is something new, and beautiful, to find within each one. This practice of rewriting my personal colour story is useful in a few ways. I am more intimately privy to the inner workings of my own mind, able to discern why an 12

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individual shade, or an entire spectrum of a single hue, affects me in the way it does. I am able to pair and detach certain colours with specific memories, and therefore, emotions. I also find myself largely immune to the effects of commercial colour marketing. Rather than feeling agitated by the colour red, for example, which is routinely found in conjunction with extreme feelings of stress and urgency (stop signs, red lights, sirens and all combinations of warnings), I feel interested, almost eager. All three of these emotional states—agitation, interest and eagerness—are based in excitement, but only agitation (which is the combination of excitement and anxiety) has a negative effect on my body and mind. As I become more aware of the colour-emotion associations my brain has learned, I try to restring the unconstructive ones into pairings I enjoy. Red is now the inside of a plum, the colour of dawn, the maple leaves raining on our small stretch of sidewalk. Brown, so commonly outcast as the least favoured of hues, splits into burnt umber, the rich soil our marigolds call home; wenge, a sign of winter’s arrival; and dirt, my daughter’s favourite colour. It is chestnut, the colour of her beautiful hair, soft with youth and curled at the edges, trailing behind her sprinting body like a loyal sail. It is almost autumn and the world has been shifting for weeks. It is dark when I wake, though it is morning. The baby and I shuffle outside to sit on the front porch, the scent of last night’s rainfall fresh on our faces. The leaves turn—from green to yellow, red, brown—leaving themselves behind only to become something new. For many months now I have tried to do the same, and now, in this moment, I finally do. That night, in the bath, my daughter splashes. She washes her toy penguins and sets each one aside. There are sharks coming, she warns. The penguins, paralyzed with terror, stay exactly where they are. She asks if I will be the shark, and I say yes. I am the shark. The evening light colours the bathwater sea-green, and I wade out into it. Calm and quiet, beginning anew. meeralee.com

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F R E S H

fresh talent Whether you’re a fresh graduate or mature artist, it is often a dream to be published for the first time! You’re welcome to submit your art for consideration. uppercasemagazine.com/participate

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Susan Ballard H I LT O N H E A D , S O U T H C A R O L I N A , U S A

I’m a late bloomer when it comes to art. I began in 2020. Since then I have continued to paint daily. I love using a variety of mediums, collage paper and found objects. ballardesign.com

Kelley Igo G ROVE TOWN , G EORG IA , USA

I’m an art educator currently in my 24th year of teaching at an elementary school in the heart of Georgia. The pandemic, like for so many others, brought a season of change and uncertainty into my life. As schools closed their doors, I transformed my garage into a mini art studio. I signed up for online art lessons with Amanda Evanston and got excited about creating my own art again instead of lesson plans and project samples for my students. This newfound passion for my art became a constant, even as the school doors reopened and teaching resumed.

Retirement, which is approaching on the horizon, is not just a next chapter; it’s the beginning of a new journey. I’m looking forward to dedicating myself full time to being an artist. My art has found a voice in the local community. I’ve ventured into craft shows and entered several local art exhibitions, and the experience has been nothing short of rewarding. There’s a sense of elation like no other when you receive an email notifying you that your work has been accepted into a show. One of my most distinctive artistic endeavours has been the creation of “tiny rooms.” These pieces hold within them unexpected little threedimensional elements, all woven into a narrative in which a mysterious cat lurks around. This whimsical touch adds an element of surprise and enchantment to my work. @kelleyiart

Ilene Kahn FA I R L AW N , N E W J E R S E Y, U S A

I am a paper artist. I’ve been doing origami for over 50 years. That said, whenever I see any kind of coloured paper, I get inspired. So whether it be folding, weaving, cutting or pasting, I’m always looking for ways to explore colour and design. I recycle beautiful paper from catalogues to make other objects of art. @ilenekahn uppercasemagazine.com

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B U S I N E S S

STO RY BY

a ria n n e fou l ks I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y

a n d re a d ’aq u in o

an you imagine how hard creating a business would be if you had to figure everything out yourself ? Big things happen when we learn from each other, and here are some ways to level up when you are self-employed. |||

Read, listen, watch Much of the advice that has shaped my business has come from books. Books go into more detail than you can usually find on the Internet. I particularly like reading about subjects that can apply to any type of business, to build a strong foundation. Beyond books, there are blog posts, podcasts and video content. The starter tips found here can prevent you from making common mistakes. At times, I have found myself absorbing knowledge without taking action, but now I try to make sure I’m using what I’m reading. START HERE Mike Michalowicz’s book Profit First is a must read for sustainable finances. Traction by Gino Wickman is great for building productive teams.

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Take a class It can be worthwhile to have a teacher and group of peers for interactive learning. Classes tend to go deeper than what you can find for free online. When evaluating a class, I look for a teacher who has found their own sustainable success in their subject. I also want to see that they are keeping abreast of updates in their field.

grow your business F I V E WAY S T O G E T K N O W L E D G E A B L E A D V I C E

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START HERE The (free) Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program. It is almost a mini MBA, with continuing opportunities for education and networking.

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Join a peer group In a mastermind group ( a type of peer-to-peer mentoring group), you can share experiences to help each other solve problems. One of my groups consists of very similar businesses, and in the other, we are each quite

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distributed nationwide. For the first time, those in a printing industry spread far and wide across the country could not only see and learn from the work their peers were producing, but evaluate their own work in comparison. In his introduction to the first volume, Tuer wrote: “Good typography concerns every man, woman, and child who can read. Printers would do well to recollect that in technically educating themselves they are educating the masses … for printing is closely allied to the fine arts, and by the production of better work the national taste is elevated and society at large benefitted.” When we observe the pages of the Exchange, we see examples of what kept the printing industry moving at the time. During the Victorian era, most job printers were busy producing commercial advertisements, handbills, posters, and trade, business and invitation cards, and this first volume of the Exchange is rife with these works. Also observable are the marks of progress and the stylistic shift from more decorative single-colour borders and intricate cuts to a proliferation of flat colour and colourful inks in order to communicate ideas. Printers contributing to the exchange eventually became masters in using opaque and metallic inks to execute complex designs. And though reproductions of paintings were still common, this magnificent use of flat colour raised the bar on the resulting graphics. When evaluating the work chosen for the Exchange, the incredible use of colour and imagery stands out as unlike anything we see in our time. Whether referencing the characteristics of an older, classical British style or looking forward into the newly emerging world of Art Nouveau, these artisans used colourful borders, patterns, flourishes, scrollwork and typography to the height of their effectiveness. Flowers burst over the elaborate, gilded frames that 26

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seek to contain them, while rainbow butterflies alight on the sweeping type of a business card. Every page brings something new. Some examples look ready to run out of space with the amount of design work and flourishes crammed within, while others make scant use of their pages, focusing on one centrally contained, bordered image. One also notes during a perusal that images from the Exchange are also very much influenced by the rhythms and advancements of the times. Examples show traditional Baroque British imagery woven alongside fin de siècle images of sports and symbols of the Industrial Revolution, such as smokestacks, machinery and factories. A colourful world of visual capriciousness flows across the pages, each different and more ornate than the next, creating a wonderland for design enthusiasts to observe. As the Printers’ International Specimen Exchange began steadily releasing volumes, it eventually accomplished the original goal it had set for itself. The standards of British printing improved significantly over 18 years, inspiring other countries to take notice of the Exchange’s reputation for quality. Never a purely British venture, the Exchange saw 128 foreign specimens submitted from 17 countries for the eighth volume

alone, including some from China, Norway, Argentina, Japan, Poland and South Africa. Each country brought something new to the pages, and this rise led to several countries creating their own national exchanges for distribution. By volume 10, interest in the venture had cooled significantly, primarily due to a shift in editorship, the ousting of Tuer and the adoption of new, more competitive rules. Long-time contributors did not receive these changes well, and many stopped submitting work— leaving the publication struggling for submissions. Despite this shake-up, the Exchange would publish six more editions. But by that time, other work and publications, including magazines, had taken up the gauntlet it had carried for so long, and it was clear that its moment had passed. The final volume appeared in 1898, 18 years after its first inception and release. Today, because the Printers’ International Specimen Exchange had such a brief run and is not generally known, it is rare to find an intact copy in the wild. Young remarks in the final chapter of his book: “Only a few hundred at most of any one series were bound, and since the volumes were distributed by subscription, few if any public or private collections outside the British Library have all sixteen volumes” (Young, 49). It is more common to find the tattered remnants with little to no context on their original purpose. Despite the relative obscurity of these volumes, what is evident when we review their pages today is the excitement those involved felt around the whole project. There is an inherent joy within the submissions. And it is clear that contributors were exhilarated and motivated to experiment with different colours, imagery, styles and advancements in order to recreate their industry and inspire one another to improve. And, for a brief time, the Printers’ International Specimen Exchange represented the best that British printing had to offer and single-handedly helped advance artful printing within the country and the modern world.

Young, Matthew McLennan. The Rise and Fall of the Printers’ International Specimen Exchange. Oak Knoll Press, 2012.

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Up, Up & Away Justine Ickes TO R R I N GTO N , C O N N E C T I C U T, U SA

Expressing creativity, making connections and tapping into the wisdom of other cultures infuse everything I do. As a mixed-media artist, creative coach and retreat leader, I love to combine art techniques and styles from different cultures—personal map-making plus Japanese sashiko, embellishing handmade books with Turkish ebru or creating a mandala, for example—to help people widen their worlds through personal introspection and global exploration. Collage-making appeals to me, in particular, as a way to connect with my intuition, puzzle through life’s mysteries and play with colours, pattern and shape. This palette speaks to my experiences in the Mediterranean region, where I spent many happy years and where I continue to enjoy adventures with my bicultural family. justineickes.com/art

Limited colours, unlimited ideas Esté MacLeod LONDON, UK

Coloricombo is an ongoing creative colour challenge that started in 2022. Once a week a colour prompt is sent out to everyone who subscribes (it is free). The prompt consists of a selection of between two and five colours, picked from an artwork by an artist or designer from the past. The idea is to use these colours as a base, with the addition of a dark and neutral colour, for a creation in any media, subject or theme. Thousands have joined in this program, which is now in its third year. I think creativity flourishes when you are focused on using a limitation of dynamic colours, and I love seeing what people create—paintings, sketchbook and journaling, ceramics, embroidery, collage, etc. In addition to the colours, I send out a concise backstory of each featured artist. Very often these are lesser-known female artists and designers, as well as others who fell into obscurity. Get into a creative habit by doing a weekly colour project. Join in and see where they will lead you. courses.estemacleod.com @estemacleod

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Reflections on Color and Printmaking Laura Crehuet Berman K A N S A S C I T Y, MISSOURI, USA

Modern Art Needlepoint Kim Colthurst Johnson SAINT JOHNS, F LOR I DA , USA

This needlepoint piece, inspired by a 1917 Paul Klee gouache painting, is a perfect example of how the precise use of colour and shape can form a perfect composition. I love the colour choices of the Bauhaus period and creating this piece is an homage to that era. I used estate sale vintage wool and used markers to draw the design on my needlepoint canvas. linktr.ee/kimcolthurst @themodernweaver

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Kaleidomicroscopics Lisa Hasegawa TA C O M A , W A S H I N G T O N , U S A

These “Kaleidomicroscopics” were created by typing patterns onto various transparent papers using different typewriters, coloured carbon paper and ephemera in my collection. I made a suite of 20 pieces, four sets of five. I limited the first three sets to three colours to fill positive and negative spaces created by machine-sewn lines, while the last set used all the colours from the first 15. The result was a playful study of colour, pattern and the way they intermingle. ilfant.com @ilfantpress

Reflections on Color and Printmaking is an ongoing series of interviews with contemporary artists who use both colour and printed methodologies in their work. I began this project in November 2020, in tandem with the Color in Printmaking course I developed at KCAI (Kansas City Art Institute), where I teach. So far I have archived over 75 interviews on the project’s website (reflectionsoncolor. com). Looking at colour through the lens of art, ink and printmaking has yielded so many interesting conversations— from the social structure of colour separations, the permanence and “event” mindset of putting ink onto paper, and personal and philosophical choices about working in monochrome—and ultimately the project describes how each artist feels their way through their work. reflectionsoncolor.com @reflections_on_color

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Color Writing Laine Nixon S A R A S O TA , F L O R I D A , U S A

These two paintings are from my Color Writing series. Each finished work in the series is oil on panel. I call the series Color Writing because each work begins with stream of consciousness writing in marker on transparencies. I write in large block letters that overlap to create bright colour swatches. I then cut and collage the transparencies to create abstract digital photographs/ studies from which to paint. Each step in the process provides another layer of abstraction. Visual balance in both colour and composition is the main objective and comes intuitively to me as I progress through the process. One “wrong” move in saturation, hue or value can result in an unwanted focal point or shape. The unification of the painting comes entirely from the use of these elements. lainenixon.com @lainenixonstudio

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The Garden Luke Mizer M I LWAU K E E , W I S C O N S I N , U SA

Colour is an invitation. I enjoy the vastness a painting can have simply because of its colour. I am fascinated by how adding the smallest stroke of pink can change the entire landscape or mood of a particular piece. “Garden” is a painting I created for my sister, who recently moved to San Francisco. The pink in this piece is designed to tug at heartstrings, while simultaneously applauding newfound freedom. The grass, as it turns out, really is greener on the other side. @lukemizer_

Colour Presences Lloyd Pollard B R A M P T O N , O N TA R I O , C A N A D A

There is a level of pleasure and independent beauty that I felt in each of these colours that inspired me to arrange them in this simple, specific way. The sum of the colours is appealing, while the uniqueness of each is compelling. The art of this image is not in what is being depicted but what is radiating and being felt. I love the independent sense of community inherent in this colour palette. Colours with presence I love. lloydpollardart.com @kasp74_pollard

Chromascapes Carolina Reis T O R O N T O , O N TA R I O , C A N A D A

For over a year I have been working on this series of embroidered works of art inspired by early morning walks by Lake Ontario. Using one thread of colour at a time, I tried to capture the soothing shades of waterfront landscapes at sunrise by replicating the combination of colours throughout the seasons. Without representing a literal landscape, the colours used in these artworks encapsulate spaciousness, the passing of time and the longing for hope, and unconsciously trigger a feeling of peace, calm and safety. carolinareis.art @carolinareis.art

Colour Theory Quilts Sarah Spencer CH ICAGO, I LLI NOIS, USA

Flora Folklórico Lin Bentley Keeling E L PASO, TE X AS , U SA

Pinks and reds have never been my favourite colours and I wanted to challenge myself to design a piece using some rose-pink cotton I had, so I created “Flora Folklórico,” juxtaposing the rose-pink with other vibrant colours I had seen in the dresses worn by folklórico dancers. LinBentleyKeeling.com @linbkeeling

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As part of an ongoing effort to push my boundaries with colour, I’ve started a series of mini-quilts, each stretched over a wooden frame, which I’ve called Colour Theory. Each piece explores pure and neutral tones, as well as colour values, through a repetition of simple shapes in playful-yet-deliberate palettes. I plan to continue the series, with each piece exploring different parts of the colour wheel. iothealien.com @iothealien

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Colour Spectrum Shelley Davies VICTOR IA , BC, CANADA

What’s not to love about a colour spectrum? Aside from the incredible natural phenomenon that it is, as well as its contemporary use as a symbol of inclusivity, the rainbow is a joyful celebration of every colour, percolating with myriad, delightful combinations. In a world that needs as much brightening and levity as possible, a colour spectrum always seems to do exactly that for me. There’s a playful hopefulness to it, with its infinite possibilities. Having used rainbows in many of my artworks in the past, either with paint chips and paint to create paper collages, to huge ephemera-rich assemblages, I look forward to finding new ways to work with the entire universe of colour. shelleysdavies.com @shelleysdavies

Stripey Kat Gooch-Breault E AS T D U M M E R S TO N , V E R M O N T, U SA

In 2019, I was tapped to create a piece for the Washington Heights Jazz Festival art show in NYC. I reflected on colours and how they can riff and play off each other, as notes and themes in jazz music do. I experimented with juxtaposing hues and shades within a structure of stripes, then added contrasting colours to an inset shape to make it pop. This was the beginning of my Stripey paintings. Over the years I’ve made these paintings on vastly different scales, some of my own design, some as commissions. What draws me back to them time and again is the colour work; finding just the right hand-mixed colour to set against another is such a thrill. When Blue Steel can rendezvous with Butter, negotiate with neighbours Lavender and Peachy-Pearl, and wave to Butter’s neighbours Teal and Raspberry Beret, then the whole work sings. katgb.art @katgb.art

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A year in colours Helen Shaddock N EWCASTLE U PON T YN E , U K

When designing a calendar, I thought about what colours could be associated with each month. For instance, when I think of January, I imagine the signs of snow, with pale blue/pink skies. I tried to use complementary or contrasting colours each month. helenshaddock.co.uk @helenshaddock

Hezki’s Magic Quilt Trixi Symonds S Y D N E Y, A U S T R A L I A

This is a hand-sewn quilt, made from hand-dyed cottons, for my son, Hezki. With work commitments and life’s interruptions, the process of composing and sewing the squares took me five years to complete. Its inspiration comes from Paul Klee, whose colour explorations deeply influenced modern painting. I had in mind two small works: “Ancient Harmony” (1925) and “Blossoming” (1934). These paintings consist of only squares of colour, but by juxtaposing differing hues, intensities and weights, Klee creates the feeling of something growing and unfolding, like a garden or a human heart. Klee’s reduction of painting to small squares of colour is perfect for a quilt. I acquired some beautiful hand-dyed cottons and set about composing a quilt that relied upon nothing but the hues, intensities and weights of its coloured squares to create something that feels magical and full of life. sewasoftie.com @sewasoftie

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Woodcut Deborah Iacovelli F O R K E D R I V E R , N E W J E R S E Y, U S A

This woodcut print was printed with oil-based inks in both complementary and analogous colour palettes, each starting with green. I have been studying more about colour theory and using palettes made from mixing just two colours. The top layer for each of the versions was printed using the split fountain (rainbow roll) method. As the two colours are rolled and come together, additional colours are formed in the centre. For the bottom layer, white and extender was added to the blue-green formed with the analogous palette, as well as the neutral formed using the complementary colours. debiacovelli.com @debiacovelli_art

Colour-matching plastic toys Jane Housham HITCHIN, UK

I’m obsessed with old plastic toys, particularly the extraordinary range and subtlety of the colours they come in. This grid records my efforts to match their colours with paint swatches. The effect is almost as if the object is being 3D printed out of the swatch. janehousham.co.uk @foundandchosen

All the Colours Sally Stetson MORRISVILLE , V E R M O N T, U SA

Parking Spot Sara Delaney M E DFORD, MASSACH US E T TS, USA

These works explore multicolour prints created from the same woodcut. This technique of white line printing emulates the multicolour effect of Japanese prints—without the work of carving multiple registered plates. Each carved section is hand-coloured and pressed to paper, so there is no limit to the number of colours that may be used. In one version, the house, foliage, fence and gold bicycle crush into each other, emphasizing the tight space in this neighbourhood. In another version, the red bicycle pops forward, complemented by the sea of greens behind. @sketchy.artventures

I am a professional graphic designer, which means many hours in front of a monitor. Off screen, I had some bits of my own art, some parts of packaging patterns, newsprint, etc. I wanted to challenge myself to work in three overall colours—red, yellow and green—but build in all the subtleties that surround those colours. These are small studies about seven inches by seven inches. Creating them involved tiny scissors, glue, tweezers and moving things around. Fun! sallystetson.com @sally_stetson_ design uppercasemagazine.com

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O R I G I N

senescence changing colour through the seasons

magine yourself walking down a treelined avenue or through a wooded forest, sunlight filtering through the canopy. Imagine it is early spring, and the air is fresh and fragrant. Look up at the leaves, so new they’re almost glowing. Now imagine it is the middle of summer. Now autumn. Each time looks different—and feels different. The green has deepened, then transformed into striking yellows and reds. They are the same trees, but the colours have changed, and so have you. I have long been drawn to a certain shade of slightly mustardy yellow. I’m tempted to trace it to a handful of things from my youth: the yellow shirt worn by my beloved melancholic Charlie Brown; my grandpa’s yellow Massey Ferguson tractor, an all-purpose workhorse from 1959 that my dad still uses today. But more significant, perhaps, is the yellow of autumn leaves. On the prairies where I grew up, the few native trees we have—poplars, trembling aspen and a variety of knotty, stunted willows—tend to turn yellow, exclusively. There’s very little dramatic, fiery red. But this never bothered me; being bathed every September in the golden-tan of harvest wheat and the soft yellow of a row of sentinel poplars always felt like wealth.

as a species, embedded with millennia of deep, intimate connection with the seasons. We can’t help but be attuned to these things, at some level.

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c orrey b a ld w in OPENING P H OTO G R A P H BY

b onnie p e ters

I have an affinity for autumn, for its climate as well as for what it represents, for me: a time for harvest, for slowing down, a time of both preparation and reflection. But of course I am hardly an autumn person year round. We enter each season with different goals and expectations. So do plants, in a way—just as leaves alter their colour as time passes, so do we. Consider how we come to spring: emerging from winter, that dormant season. The world has been quiet, the colours muted: greys and tans—and white, of course (a colour we think of as simultaneously all the colours and their absence). Winter can be a dark and difficult season, but it can also provide the space and time to think and to create, at one’s own pace. And then we leap into spring. Look up at the fresh, youthful leaves. Everything is so eager, so full of potential. As the greenery unfurls, so do new dreams and new ideas and new goals. Worlds and lives expand.

Colour is, technically speaking, a neutral thing—and yellow is a colour like any other: a specific wavelength of reflected light, received by corresponding receptors in our eyes. But of course we are not neutral creatures, and everything we see—and touch, taste, smell and hear—is filtered through our past experiences, personal predilections and cultural understandings. We bring ourselves to the colours.

Look up at those same leaves in summer, when you’re in the thick of it all: they are deep green and full, and lazy in the heat. In summer, green gets down to work. Chlorophyll, the green pigment found in leaves, is busy absorbing and capturing the sun’s energy and using it to convert water and carbon dioxide into sugars on which the plant will feast and grow throughout the summer. This is a season of feasting and growing for us, too. In the summer we are meant to do it all—joyfully, excessively, luxuriously, decadently. It is a period of intensity (even if an intensity of leisure).

If yellow is just yellow, why do I like it so much? And why leafy yellow? Some of us are creatures of autumn, some summer, some spring—and some, possibly the more admirable among us, winter. No matter how modern or saturated in technology our lives may be, we are,

And then slowly, as the weeks and short months go by, the summer green grows tired, becomes spent. Leaves droop, fade at the edges. One thing may be ending, but another transformation has begun. Look up again: the leaves have turned into bursts of yellow, orange and red. uppercasemagazine.com

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S K E T C H B O O K

the joy of playing with colours and texture

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P A R T I C I P A T E

Does your heart go pitterpatter over beautiful colour combinations? Do you love playing with colour theory? Do you plan creative projects by beginning with inspiring hues?

colour schemes and colour dreams

With paint, pigment, art supplies, yarns, thread, fabric, glazes, tiles and found objects, UPPERCASE readers create colour compositions of their favourite colour palettes.

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Rainbow Brights Danni Greenlee WOODL AN D, CALI FORN IA , USA

When my kids ask me what my favourite colour is, I always tell them rainbow colours. I find myself being drawn to bright primary colours and rainbow colours. Sometimes I tell myself I’m going to try a new colour combination, and then step back to find out I’ve just gone right back to my old favourites. As a graphic designer, I can’t always use this colour combination, but I dream of creating everything in this colour palette. dkgreenlee.com

colour inspiration for paintings Alexandra Ackerman I O WA C I T Y, I O WA , U S A

These colour swatches are made from scraps around my studio, cut and collaged onto black paper. They’re inspired by button cards from my collection. These cards were purchased from my favourite thrift store in Iowa City. I love the idea of using them as colour palettes for future paintings. alexandra-ackerman.com @alexandra.ackerman

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Colour Play Amberleigh Adoff L A K E F O R E S T, CA L I F O R N I A , U SA

I am often drawn to earthy, muted colours, as I find them soothing to look at. I think my calm and subtle colours are reflective of my introverted personality. I like quiet colours and I tend to shy away from bright, loud colours. I’m often inspired by nature, so it is no surprise that my colour palettes often feature greens and variations of clay and peach. beesweetstudio.com @beesweetstudio

Colour Portrait of a Place Maja Kaurin BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

I am interested in colour mapping of urban and natural environments. Colour mapping forms an important part of research in environmental colour design process. Existing colours, measured as well as perceived, found in existing materials or vegetation, can define different areas, however small or large, and provide a very special portrait of a place. Colour maps and charts can show the atmosphere or an impression of a place, and are often one of the starting points of urban colour design. Even when I am not working on a specific colour design project, I like to collect materials as I visit different places. I then create little colour portraits of those places that allow me to come up with interesting colour palettes and combinations, sometimes surprising and unusual. But what always binds and grounds those colours together is a connection to a specific place. It is always interesting to see the prevalence of specific colour ranges in different regions. linktr.ee/colorspotter @colorspotter

Palette of Earth Anastasia Dums A N TA LYA , T U R K E Y

This collection of soil pigments serves as the foundation for many of my artistic creations. I meticulously gather soil from diverse locations and manually prepare it to craft handmade paints, resulting in a palette of distinctive earthy hues. It’s incredibly thrilling to witness how the finely powdered sand or soil can manifest such a diverse spectrum of colours and textures on my canvas. I’m enamoured by how each region’s soil imparts a one-of-a-kind tint and character to the final artwork. This unique colour palette has been a wellspring of inspiration, driving me to create both abstract pieces and a portrait series. Using soil pigments not only grants my artwork a stunning colour blend but also imbues it with profound significance. I can infuse my creations with a profound connection to the land. Through these organic elements, it feels like I’m able to preserve the soul of nature within my art. @anastasiaaknar.art

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Craft

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P O RTR A IT BY CA RM E L KI N G

a r g o S e l b y ’s han d - a n d loom-woven textiles are a maximalist amalgam of colour and pattern. Margo’s name is also her renowned brand. In 2023 she celebrated 20 years of that brand and her work as a surface pattern designer and artist. It has been a gradual expansion—from Margo by herself at the loom, to the current team of 10 people, four of whom are weavers. They all work out of her studio in Whitstable, a charming coastal town in Kent, England. She splits her practice between designing commercial products like cushions, blankets and bed linens—both under her own brand and for clients—and weaving her one-off, intensively handmade artworks. It was a foundation course at Camberwell College of Arts in London which opened up a menu of potential creative paths for Margo. Her tutors nudged her toward fine art because she could draw, but it wasn’t quite the right fit. “I couldn’t do fine art,” she says. “I found it difficult because I don’t necessarily have stories that I want to communicate in my work. It’s a more aesthetic, physical and visual thing for me.” She felt she could have gone down any route, but her family, granny and great-granny had always made lots of textiles. “There were a lot of old-fashioned textiles around my house. And I really enjoy making textiles. I find it therapeutic.” So, textiles it was. She moved on from Camberwell to a degree course at Chelsea College of Arts, another famous and long-lived London art college. As a Londoner herself, she knew the London art colleges were really good. “At the time, Chelsea was well known for doing good floral prints, and a visit there revealed lots of intricate floral drawings, and the approach was quite technical,” Margo says. “I think I was inspired by that.” The tutors at Chelsea spotted her talent for constructed textiles early on, pointing her in the direction of knitting and weaving. Her work was full of repeating objects and colourful shapes, geometrics and structured patterns. “I could understand what they meant once I’d done it. I do think in a constructed way.” uppercasemagazine.com

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CA RM E L KI N G

Her first encounter with a loom at Chelsea was transformational. “The first time I got on a loom I was just: ‘Oh my god, I love this.’ There was a very clear thought that this is what I want to do. I could get completely engrossed. I didn’t want to leave the weave room.” Experimenting with really complicated things early on, she split her first warp into four layers so that she could bring different colours to the surface. “I had this natural relationship with the loom that was very exciting for me.” She liked to push the loom as far as it would go, technically speaking, driven by technique rather than design, the opposite of how she works now. “With every warp, I was learning new technical skills. But I wouldn’t say I had much understanding of the design world or of how to contextualize my work in the world. I knew I loved colour and weaving, but it was how to take that into something that could be useful in the commercial world. Or useful for me as an artist.” From Chelsea she went on to do an MA in constructed textiles at the Royal College of Art (RCA), graduating in 2001. At the RCA the power Jacquard loom (which allows complex patterns to be programmed and woven, and is much faster than a hand loom) changed her work once again. Students would get a half day on rotation on the loom. She had so many ideas that her prep work became really organized, so that when she had time on the loom she could get lots of work done. “I still work that way now,” she says. “I make a lot of stuff but it can be chaotic.” A college placement at a silk mill in India proved pivotal. They invited her back after her graduation, and she took the chance to make a length of her own fabric. “I’d brought with me all these fancy yarns and a design I’d done at the RCA, inspired by bubble wrap. I wanted to get the texture of bubble wrap, but in silk. It was a double cloth, with a circle of silk that was the bubble. The other layer of cloth I wove with Lycra (the sort they make cheap ladies tights with).” She remembers the mill being shocked that she wanted to put cheap nylon thread on their fine silk warps. “And when I wove it they were even more horrified because when it came off the loom it shrunk into half the width.” They told her it wasn’t commercially viable, but she thought perhaps she could sell it. She came back to England with 30 metres of her silk “bubble wrap.” She had also just been accepted as one of the first three fellows at the new philanthropic Ann Sutton Foundation, where she stayed from 2001 to 2003. She exhibited the bubble wrap weaves as cushions and scarves with the Foundation at the annual Chelsea Craft Fair. Then in 2003 she won a start-up grant from the Crafts Council, and with it she bought her first loom. And she was off—running her eponymous business from her home in Willesden, London, living and working

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Margo is tenacious about continuing her art making. Experience has taught her that the two sides of her business, commercial and art, support each other creatively. “There is so much symbiosis between the two parts of my practice,” she says. “The commercial side is what allows me to sit at a loom for three months and make a piece if I want to. Then that piece will definitely feed back ideas and inspiration. I really love the creative side and I really love the commercial side.” One of the things about the commercial side she most appreciates is that it makes design accessible to a wide audience. “Everyone can have a tea towel,” she says. They may be tea towels, but her trademark pattern and colour designs make all her work distinctively hers, even in a saturated market. She notes that colour was there in her work from the beginning. “I am a maximalist when it comes to colour. I think the more colour you add, the more interesting it gets. I’m always talking to myself about simplification but I can never resist throwing in a big pop of pink. I can’t hold back. I’m not restrained.” Her work and travels in India exposed her to a vibrant palette that has been present in her work ever since. “It’s been an interesting challenge over the years to try and get the saturation that I am trying to achieve and use structures that will bring yarns—and so colours—to the surface.” Beyond the constraints of production, Margo’s woven artworks are pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the loom. Referencing, amongst other things, the Bauhaus, optical illusions, pixelation (the correlation between looms and computers has its own history) and patchwork, her artworks are odes to thread and colour writ large. She makes hundreds of yarn-winding artworks, small and large. It is a technique she first

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learned all those years ago at Chelsea College of Arts. Although it is usually done around card, more recently Margo has begun to wind three dimensionally around wood, to imagine how the threads might interact in two different directions. Our cover image shows one of these, displaying the juxtapositions and proportions of colour she is able to achieve off loom. “I might have a palette with which I might do six yarn windings. One combination will have magic,” she says. “I’m not a designer where I get something right the first time. It’s the exploration, trying lots of different combinations, making subtle changes.” Celebrating 20 years of one’s eponymous brand is quite something. Margo has found—or rather created—a more forgiving place for running her business and pursuing her practice as an artist. “Weaving is boundaries,” she explains. “I love the boundaries of the horizontal and the vertical, and the boundaries of the loom and what it can do. When I started making my artwork I was getting almost frustrated with boundaries: How is this fabric going to perform? Is it practical? Is it going to work on the body? On the sofa?” Without the need to serve a function, an exciting creative freedom has ensued. “I wanted to let go and focus on creating a piece which for me is the most aesthetically exciting, pleasing piece, without it trying to be for something, without the boundary of it having to perform in a certain way—just making a fabric for the sake of making a really beautiful piece of fabric. Letting the fabric be its own entity, really.” margoselby.com @margoselbystudio

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S T U D I O

subscriber studios Want to be featured? Submit your studio story! uppercasemagazine.com/participate

Julia Da Rocha FORT MYE RS , F LOR I DA , USA

My name is Julia and I am an artist, graphic designer and storyteller living in Florida. It’s a beautiful Saturday morning, and the clear blue sky and tall palm trees are visible through my window as I enter the studio. I greet my friends and catch up with them about art and life. Next, I brew myself a cup of coffee and relish a tasty breakfast freshly prepared by the Arts and Eats Cafe located on the first floor of the Key West–style building. While playing music in the background, I change into my comfy and cute froggy slippers, always under my table, and shift into the creative zone, where I paint. poz-art.com @instapozart

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Subscription Postcard Paper Weaving Laura Lacroix I S L A N D P O N D, V E R M O N T, U SA

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C I R C L E

looking forward Volume N: Notions Notions celebrates the remarkable, practical and nostalgic tools and accessories of sewing. With sewing stories and miscellany from textile artists, fabric designers, quilt pattern makers, quilt shop owners, haberdashers, inventors and entrepreneurs, Volume N in the UPPERCASE Encyclopedia of Inspiration will be an entertaining and illuminating A to Z of sewing miscellany. Coming in 2024!

Circle

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Volume G: Glue Details to be announced in early 2024. uppercasemagazine.com/volumeG

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Subscription Postcard Paper Weaving Laura Lacroix I S L A N D P O N D, V E R M O N T, U SA

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129

C O V E T

colour theories

STO RY A N D P H OTO BY

andre a jenki ns

130

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he world as we know it is losing colour. I was in the drive-thru line at a national ice cream chain when I first noticed it. The building had recently been remodelled, its bright, cherry red exterior replaced with beige-toned bricks and flat black trim, rendering it nearly indistinguishable from the surrounding restaurants. As the cars ahead of me inched forward, I looked around and felt like I had somehow been plopped down in the land of The Beige and The Boxy. And while one small suburban pocket of the American South can’t possibly represent the entire world, recent studies confirm that, globally speaking, colour is, in fact, disappearing. In 2020, the British Science Museum analyzed photographs of over 7,000 everyday objects in their collection and, in the span of a few hundred years (1800–2020), the most significant trend noted was a sizable swing towards the colour grey. And it’s not just our objects, but the cars we drive, the clothes we wear, the paint we choose for our homes. In other words, the colour we live with every day. Greyscale seems to have settled over parts of our human world like a colourless blanket.

U P P E R C A S E

This time last year, the conversation around these studies hit a fever pitch and the Internet was quick to lament the impending loss, as well as offer a few feasible explanations: changes in materials over time, cost and efficiency, fluctuating trends. But just as the Internet was churning over it, I found myself in one of the most colourful places in the world. Burano, an Italian fishing village clustered with homes gloriously drenched in colour, first enchanted me decades ago. Almost exactly 23 years later, I found my way back and rented a small townhouse on the island so I could see, specifically, what it might be like to live with so much colour, if only for a few days. I wandered early each morning before the first boats from Venice arrived and tourists flooded the streets, and then walked to the island’s edges each evening, collecting colour as I went: magentas as deep and bright as the insides of the pomegranates that hung from trees that lined the canals; warm, lemony yellows and tomato reds so juicy you could practically taste them. But the colours of the homes were one thing, the small everyday details, another. I did not expect to fall so deeply in love with bright-coloured broomsticks, often set neatly just outside curtained front doors; or ladders propped against buildings, splattered with a thousand different shades of paint; or the rainbows of crates stacked inside nearly every fishing boat. Even the plastic clothespins used to hang laundry looked like candy. Colour seemed to thread its way throughout the entire island, hinting at something deeper than an aesthetic. Colour, it seemed, was a way of life. As I wandered the island, I kept thinking, why don’t more of us live this way? I am not proposing we transform every city into a Burano, but why have so many of us traded saturation for greyscale? A few years ago, the neighbours across the street painted their house a bright Caribbean blue. I watched with fascination as the house went from muted grey to a shocking bright blue. We are an average American subdivision, consisting mostly of modest, neutral-coloured homes (my own rental included), so when the painters finally finished, it was as if the arteries of the neighbourhood had suddenly been infused with something electric and alive. Maybe we’re losing colour in the human world, but it’s not dead yet. Sure, a few of my neighbours smirked in the direction of the blue house, but I have to believe I was not completely alone in my delight. I could not have been the only one rooting for this bold move. And I know I can’t be the only one rooting for the pendulum to swing back towards colour again. In the meantime, I’ll look for Burano wherever I can find it—in the local mural projects I see popping up around the city, in the woman at the grocery store dressed from head to toe in lemon yellow, in the paint swatch aisle at the hardware store. And, of course, in the bright blue house just across the street.

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