The Relative Irrelevance of Historical Colors
Please don't buy paint colors for your home simply because they were popular during the 18th and 19th centuries.
A Brief History of Shade
The Oxford English Dictionary has dozens and dozens of definitions of shade. I try to understand a few of them.
Why you should care about the color of ballet shoes.
Spoiler: This isn't just about the color of ballet shoes
Color Snack: Inspiration for new collection of "Paper Candy"
Warning: Art is not edible.
What exactly is a favorite color?
While the simple question “what is your favorite color?” seems rather straightforward, three out of the five words are anything but.
And here are roughly 5600 words to prove it.
Down another rabbit hole... (Or "why are carrots orange?")
As I mentioned in my initial newsletter, I tend to go down a lot of random “rabbit holes” during my research. It seemed fitting, then, that I began this time with a theory I had about orange carrots.
This story is bananas. (Or "how banana became a color.")
In under a half century, the humble banana went from being an exotic fruit to an eponymous color. At its peak, the fervor for this fruit could only be compared to that of the Dutch Tulip Mania of the 1630s, albeit in a very different way.
Translating Biblical Colors
As a general rule of thumb, color is always mistranslated in the Bible. It’s not as much that they didn’t have the same colors that we do, it’s more that our concept of color is muddled.
My Eye Color
The etymology of the word blue includes everything from brothels to mermen to monsters with twelve feet and six heads to the effects of magic herbs, but not necessarily in that order.
And now for something new...
If I’ve had a conversation with you over the past two months in person, I’ve probably randomly started talking about the history of using the word “bleu” in French as a profanity...