Sometimes we are not ready to change color
11/27/2006 06:39 PM by Gretchen Schauffler
Happy Holiday everyone!
I have been up to my neck in color and I will soon be able to share with you all that has kept me from blogging, including a new series of colors, the launch of our color service, and the redesign of our website. When I am in the middle of this very intense, creative process, I become lost in the corners of my mind, so the last thing I remember was Halloween. Then I looked up and, all of the sudden, it was Thanksgiving. It’s like when you are driving in your car, lost in thought, and you arrive at your destination and think, “I don’t remember driving here.”
I love every season and their color palettes. Fall does hold a very dear place in my heart as it starts with a slow crescendo towards the Christmas summit that culminates in the birth of a new year. It starts in September, a month that always seems like purgatory to me.
September can still have 80 degree days, so you’re reveling in the present (sun, geraniums, blue water, frosty lipstick) yet temperatures start dropping at night and you know what comes next (pumpkins, cider, apples, sunflowers and Uggs). October churns summer’s colors into orange spice and burnt clay.
November is all about anticipation. Thanksgiving is our favorite family holiday, and this year, just when I was about to give thanks for so many things, including fall colors, out of the corner of my eye, I caught Christmas.
Wait! I wasn’t ready to switch from a smoldering, caramelized rainbow to a green and red garland wonderland, but there they were—Christmas colors, blinking their way into retail stores. Christmas lights, with smug-like winks that say, “You better watch out, you better not cry, I’m telling you why” with every beat.
When did it become okay to introduce Christmas before Thanksgiving? Who decided to roll out this plaid kaleidoscope before golden leaves fall and our carved pumpkins rot? Somewhere between Halloween and Thanksgiving, it became alright to shorten fall colors to an upcoming preview to the main feature—Christmas season.
Now that Thanksgiving is over, I am grateful to look outside and see that the leaves are gone and the colors of bare bark and silver skies are ready to be dressed in glamorous holiday color! Yes, December is almost here and it is time for bling to blink and wink. But can we all please stand up and say, not till the fat turkey sings? Next year, let’s revolt in the name of fall color. Give each holiday the “all eyes on you” when it is their time. Happy Holidays!
Gretchen Schauffler
Artist and Founder of Devine Color®
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I agree. I love the warmth and coziness of the autumn colors. I have a hard time switching seasons—I drag my feet—”No, don’t take the intense hot summer yellow sun and bright blues, greens, and oranges from me!” Then I notice I am loving the brisk days of fall with the warm spicy colors and don’t want this season to end.
I wish too that the advertising world wouldn’t rush the red and green of Christmas. It almost seems like I get the kids back in school and then the almost gaudiness starts showing up. Relax, take a deep breath and enjoy each day, each season. I know Christmas will come—don’t rush me!
So, actually during winter I enjoy the bare trees (beautiful in a different way from the lush greenness) and the colors of blue, grey and white. They represent winter to me—a peaceful simple calming time.
Okay, Gretchen, now I want to know more about what you have been up to!!!??!! New colors?!! I can’t wait to hear—-even my guy at the paint store doesn’t know. Please tell us soon!!!
— Donna D 12/01/2006 07:37 AM #
By the time Thanksgiving reveals itself up here in Maine, the palate has changed to whites, greens and browns, something we’ve grown to appreciate as a counterpoint to the Thanksgiving harvest colors that now seem to arrive with the Christmas reds and deep greens.
We just finished putting up Devine Glass throughout the spaces in our loft (reclaimed shoe factory) and that paint has proved unreal in its ability to connect spaces with the outside, particularly in its mimicking the changes in light so prominent at this time of year in the trees, now mostly devoid of foliage, visible through windows (photos at www.MaineLoft.com ).
It’s actually caused us to take color, particularly the relationship between color in living space and natural elements as they change throughout the year, much more seriously and consider it a (perhaps even “the”) primary design element rather than an accessory.
Cannot wait to see what you’ve been up to (did we hear new colors ?!?)
Happy holidays.
— Josh & Melanie 12/04/2006 10:00 AM #