Bigger Than Roy G. Biv
One of the things that I’ve taken for granted over the past 20 years of my life is the appreciation for color. Besides the fact that my eyes work fine, it has taken me this long to truly understand how beautiful such a small thing like color truly is.
It may sound dumb or like I am just finding out how to use a pencil, but I know that it takes a lot of people tons of time to realize that they are grateful for the things that they don’t really notice on a day-to-day basis. Now, my sudden realization could be partially from me reading so much manga with such colorful cover art, but it could also be because I have finally been walking around with my chin up and eyes looking forward. When you go through things that put you in a bit of a rut or a struggle, it makes sense for everything to seem mundane, lame, and colorless.
I remember coming out of a time when it felt like there was always a dark cloud following me everywhere. The first thing I noticed was how colorful everything was. I saw how beautiful the trees looked, how the ground was cracking in different shades of grey, and especially the different variations of cotton candy skies.
I really started to appreciate color through all of the media I had been consuming. I was reading a lot of manga, watching a ton of anime (especially One Piece), and just scrolling through social media. Most of the media I was looking at portrays color in such different ways so it gave me the opportunity to look at different colors with alternative optics. Whether it be through the lighting used in order to create shade and shadows, or through the expression of feeling that occurs when large amounts of color appeared on my screen. Art creates so much vulnerability with color and it is often overlooked.
Even when I walk through museums, no matter which one, I’m always in awe of how these artists could create such emotion through artwork. Whether it’s Picasso, Murakami, or Virgil, every one of these artists creates/created with such beautiful use of color and emotion in everything they’ve given to the space.
Color has also been something I neglected in my fashion choices. I had avoided wearing things that made me stand out ever since high school, and now my wardrobe is full of clothes that look like they could be the same colors as a forest in the wintertime. I have a few pieces that have a lot of color on them, and I hardly ever wear them. Though I know that colorful pieces don’t necessarily fit my wardrobe, I still think they are super sick. A ton of brands do everything right when it comes to colors, but sometimes it's just not for me. I’ll stick to my grandpa-core wardrobe, but I will never lose this appreciation for color.
So when I think about it, I don’t just think about the different kinds of crayons Crayola has in a 64-pack, but I think about how they relate to everything around me and how they are being portrayed in that time and setting. These little things have so much meaning and they are visible for a reason, so take a good look around you to appreciate what you haven’t been.
