Top o' the Morning to you - Happy St. Patrick's Day 2017!
Green beer, green leprechauns, green hats, green clover - green everything on St. Patrick's Day.
Even when it is not St. Patrick's Day, green is everywhere. Green is the color of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green feels safe. Green takes up more space in the spectrum visible to the human eye. It's the most common color in the natural world, and it's second only to blue as the most common favorite color. It's the color we associate with money, the environment, and aliens. It's the color of life. No wonder that wearing a bit (or lots) of green wards off bad luck and pinches.
May you have the Luck of the Irish!
Fleeing from the Great Potato Famine, my father's grandparents came to America in the 1800s. Over a million in Ireland died from starvation and disease when the potato blight destroyed their only food. A million others fled to America with hopes of finding a better life. There are stories of families finally reaching the Irish shores so hungry that, when they saw the green coastal grass and clover, they dropped to the ground and grazed, staining their lips and mouths bright green. This is one reason why green is an emblematic color of the Irish.
Some of those Irish who made it to the coast to board ships for America were not so lucky. There are many accounts of families giving everything they had to pay the shipmaster, only to be betrayed by the dishonorable crew and murdered just off shore. The stories are heart wrenching, but told with a sense of triumph by descendants. The term "luck of the Irish" really isn't about luck at all, but about determination, and perseverance; it's more of an attitude - a positive look at a bad situation.
It's about how our setbacks propel us forward.
The Texas Panhandle has just had an unbelievable setback with the fires that burned over 800,000 acres, killed thousands of animals, destroyed homes and livelihoods, claimed eight lives, and broke the hearts of countless others. For as far as you can see, and in the Texas Panhandle you can see for 20 or 30 miles, the land is one huge charred black scar. In a week or so, by the mysterious forces of nature, the earth will awaken and through the ashen crust, the first color to sprout will be green - green shoots of rebirth and revitalization stretching towards the sun. Green brings with it a sense of hope. The people of the Texas Panhandle are resilient. They have that Irish spirit - the luck of the Irish. Like the grass, they too will rise above the blackness as the healing power of the color green brings hope and endurance.
What happens to your body in the presence of green? Your pituitary gland is stimulated. Your muscles are more relaxed. In short, green is calming, stress-relieving, and, paradoxically - invigorating. Did you know that time seems to pass more quickly in a green room? Green helps you have good judgement. Green has great healing power. Green is the most restful color for the human eye; it can improve vision. It's been shown to improve reading ability and creativity. Smells that we associate with the color green affect us as well. Eucalyptus is calming and soothing while lime is invigorating and refreshing. And what about that fresh smell of chlorophyll on an early spring day?
As a painter, I find green intriguingly beautiful - especially in the springtime when there seems to be an extra abundance of green in every variation imaginable. I also find it overwhelming because there are so many shades of green. I'm always challenged when I try to paint it. Outdoors in nature, all that green used to intimidate me until I began to understand it better.
Visually, green recedes, making a small space seem larger. Green is considered to be cool in temperature most of the time, but depending upon which colors are used in combination with it, green can also have a warming effect. In the landscape it is beautiful, but trying to put all that green in a painting does not always work. You've got to learn to see the yellow-greens and the yellow-oranges. Using green's compliments and discords keep a landscape painting from being 'too green.' Learn to see the red in the green.
