High Fashion Girl

If you know me well, you know that I’m obsessed with bright colors. I love to wear them and I love to dress my home in shades of turquoise, orange, yellow, red and green. I live in a Nickelodeon playhouse. My home will never be destined for the pages of Domino or Elle Décor. Truly, one could say I’m reliving my childhood just from a glance around a house full of bright colors, action figures, disembodied mannequin parts, kitschy owls, comic books and SNES games. I love how my house looks and I love how fun it is visually.

Decorating my new house and my love (or obsession?) for bright colors has had me consider lately how color effects our everyday lives. Color can be used therapeutically to help one reflect on emotions. We have so many of those associations in everyday speech. Yellow = cowardice. Green = envy. Red = anger. Color can be an emotional outlet or an exciting decorating scheme.

I saw the opera, La Rondine, at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in high definition this weekend. It was a more modern opera and the costumes were thrilling. The opera originally took place at Venice’s Teatro La Fenice. The Italian take on the costumes included lavish use of color. The main character’s friends were arrayed in her luxurious apartment in gorgeous red, chartreuse and pink gowns (reminiscent of Versace’s designs, natch). I was practically salivating throughout the entire opera. The bold use of color drew me in and also told its own story. When the main character, Magda, decided to leave her splendid, rich home to party at a bawdy nightclub, Bullier’s in Paris, she dressed in neutral colors as if to reveal how she was hiding her glamorous and elegant nature to be one of the “regular” people. It was brilliant!

Another use of color that I adore is reflected in photography. I am particularly fond of the photographer Angela Strassheim. Her photos use a lot of pastels and contain a longing quietude that is almost palpable. I think this look is specifically achieved by the use of certain colors. A pop of pink could show us a hint of domesticity or girlishness or the crisp white of matching father/son business attire shows the natural bond between them.

Being a photographer means knowing how to tell a story in pictures. What you choose to frame your picture in, the colors you use, the costumes, even the makeup can all purposefully drive towards a certain aesthetic.

So much can be conveyed by the use of color, or even with the absence of color. Whatever your beat may be, it probably means something to you.