Living color
I am sitting here drinking a diet pop. The can is mostly white, with a couple of different shades of blue and slivers of green. Despite those other colors, the dominant color is orange. The pop is colored orange. “Orange soda,” it says on the can, although the word “orange” is not to be found in the list of ingredients, and under the words “orange soda,” it says, in smaller type, “Flavored with other natural flavors.” Flavors other than orange-at least that’s my translation.
In fact, the drink doesn’t taste a thing like an orange or orange juice. I just swirled some around in my mouth to be sure. But-and this is interesting-the beverage smells a little like an orange. Anyway, I drink this pop routinely, often three or more cans in one day.
Why? Because I’m a sucker for bright colors and artificial flavors. Bright colors appeal to me: orange, yellow, red, green, purple. And I like the artificial flavors associated with those colors in hard candy like lollipops. I can’t keep that kind of candy around, though, because I’d be likely to eat Life Savers by the roll or Saf-T-Pops suckers by the bag. Purple suckers don’t taste like grapes-they taste like purple. A red Life Saver doesn’t taste like a cherry or a strawberry-it tastes red. I like those tastes.
I used to have a cheap floor lamp in my office that had five bulb fixtures, and the shade on each fixture was a bright color: red, orange, yellow, green, purple. After my office got new industrial carpeting (a gray-ish, dark blue-ish mix), I decided to paint my office. I brought dozens of paint store color strips into my office but couldn’t match one to the rug, so I called in Sherry for some design help.
She looked at my lamp and said, “You’re all about those colors.” From there, it was easy: yellow walls with the biggest wall in mostly orange with a yellow accent. The accent is invisible now because just about the entire wall is covered by a Bob Marley tapestry-done in primary colors, of course.
This color scheme may sound loud, but most of the walls’ surfaces are hidden by bookcases or bulletin boards, so the colors kind of peek out like the sun peeking through puffy white clouds. And invariably, students who come into my office for the first time like it. “You’ve got a cool office!” is the comment I hear most as they sit down. The Marley tapestry gets a lot of attention.
To help the students relax further, I offer them a cold drink. Something orange or red, perhaps?