I love colour. The brighter the better.
Why are colours so important in our lives and in the process of creating art?
It has long been thought that colours have great powers. They can lighten or darken a person’s mood, make one feel well or ill and supposedly help with healing.
Hospitals are taking great care to paint rooms certain colors so blood won’t show on the floors or walls, minimizing the patient’s anxiety during examinations and hospital stays. Makers of hospital equipment choose certain colours to enhance the feelings of calmness and wellbeing during examinations on big machines.
Want a day off? Wearing certain colours not suited to you can make you look green, thus helping to fake illness at work, allowing you to leave early and go home.
There are consulting services available for women and men that help us determine what the best colours are for us to wear, based on our skin tone, eye colour and natural hair colour. The service goes as far as indicating what colours of make-up will help you put your best foot forward in public. I’ve been told I am a spring, eternally youthful.
We paint the outside of our houses certain colours, not necessarily to fit in with the neighbours or with the heritage colours that have been recommended. We also take great care to paint the inside rooms in our houses, whether rented or owned, to make the house feel like our home. The colours we choose are all personal preferances of what colours we like, what colours make us feel good. The colours we choose can create harmony or disharmony with your partner or family members, depending on if they agree or disagree with the colour choices we have made, whether or not our colour choices are similar to what colour choices they would have made, colours that make them feel comfortable and happy.
In the spring of 2008, there was an article in Georgia Straight written by Pieta Woolley about Amanah Triggs who is a Colour Therapist living and practicing in Vancouver and has had a practice for over 18 years. The article says that paying attention to colour can change how we feel as our bodies are energy, light is energy and colour is different frequencies of light. Living in a place like Vancouver with grey skies and wearing dark clothing can make us feel sluggish and slow, dropping our energy and immune systems. Wearing reds, peaches, and rose hues can help transition from Fall over Winter into Spring.
The article also states that each colour is a tool for healing; violet, magenta, gold, and white are the most uplifting hues – the fastet-frequency colours at the infrared end of the spectrum. Red and orange tones – associated with the pelvis – linked to empowerment and sexuality. Yellow – associated with the centre of the body – mental focus. Green – associated with the heart – enhances creativity. Turquoise – associated with the thymus (located under the breastbone in your chest and produces T-cells) and endocrine system (is an organ system of glands, each of which secretes a type of hormone directly into the bloodstream to regulate the body). Blue – associated with the throat. Violet – associated with the higher mind and spirit.
The article mentions the Dinshah Health Society http://www.dinshahhealth.org/ a non-profit society promoting Spectro-Chrome through “Let There Be Light” since 1975.
A modern day pioneer in colour healing was Colonel Darius Dinshah, giving us the Specto-Chrome Color Therapy System. This system uses 12 colour filters placed in combination in front of a lamp. Red – yellow – green – blue – violet – magenta – orange – lemon – turquoise – indigo – purple – and scarlet.
The Dinshah website states: NASA and the US Navy are utilizing near-infrared (close to the end of red visible color) which heals injuries in a considerably shorter time, and are investigating the value of other colors. For decades, hospitals have used “blue-light therapy” on jaundiced babies. While they are looking you can be doing, using the 89 years’ experience behind Spectro-Chrome color therapy. Further, while Spectro-Chrome cannot overcome every health condition, it does not cause disastrous side effects as so many medical drugs are known to do.
Full Spectrum light – another source of therapy used for depression amongst many other things. This type of light is used by many artists in their studios to give better lighting and truer colours while creating their masterpieces, helping reduce eye strain.
A comparison of Full Spectrum Lighting with Natural Daylight: Natural daylight has a CRI (Color Rendering Index) of 100 – True full spectrum lighting must have a Kelvin Temperature between 5500 and 6800 (some claim 5000 OK as well) with a CRI of 90 plus.
So in conclusion, embrace colours, they will make you happy and feel good.