Color is Energy

Mr Man and I just returned from a trip to St Augustine, Florida, the oldest city in America. I thoroughly enjoyed taking pictures of the architecture around the most historical part of the city. One of the most interesting tours I went on was the first military hospital that was founded by the Spanish. Being a very devout Christian people their standard of cleanliness was before their time. Their survival rate was double what it was around the world. The pharmacist also grew many plants as medicine.

What does this have to do with color and design, Fran?

To distinguish between the tintures and such they used color. Often they used red-pigmented cochineal beetles as color. It is quite fascinating how people color their world.

Have you ever noticed, long before Taylor Swift did it, that people use color in their language, Are you feeling blue? tickled pink or green with envy or even a golden day?

Color is all around us but have you considered how it affects our emotions? According to author, Ingrid Fetell Lee, in her book, Joyful, “Color is energy made visible.”

Did you know that mayor of Tirana, Edi Rama, just used color to infuse new life into his city!? And he was successful! The city was attempting to recover from oppressive communist rule but was riddled with corruption and organized crime. With a very limited budget, All Mayor Rama did was to paint city buildings bright happy colors. Nothing changed except on the surface. But as time went on the citizens began to feel safer, pay their taxes, and remove the metal gates from their business windows. Color changed everything!

The power of color in your own home can change so much! Did you lean into the gray era so heavily that it has taken all the color joy out? When you desaturate color you add gray to it. Now that is not an awful thing, in and of itself. But gray is the ultimate in desaturated color, containing only white and black. Absence of color. Absence of joy!

Proverbs 17:22 A joyful heart is good medicine.

Think back to the colors that you loved as a child. Bright, saturated colors, I’ll bet. Now I know quite possibly that your chromophobia is chiming in right about now. But I hope that it will inspire you to embrace that color once again. Add pillows and artwork with your favorite color to your gray sofa. Paint your powder room vanity that bold, saturated color. See the room come alive!

The city of St. Augustine came alive with color. It made the city so much more exciting to see than a city of beige and gray would have been. People flock there. Imagine what color can do for your home too. Add joy.

I’d love to help.