Saturday, May 22, 2010

Which Came First?

Imagine a caveman at work on his cave paintings, he mixes together a little iron oxide and lime and makes pink.  Does he think "hmm, this go in daughter's cave".  Do we grow up learning that pink is a more feminine color or would we just naturally respond to it that way?   If we paint prison walls pink does it calm the prisoners?  And if so does it just have a naturally calming effect or does it remind the prisoner of Grandma's powder room or frosted cupcakes  and these things do not connect with bad behavior.  I once bought my husband a shirt that was yellow and blue (when he had a job that required the wearing of a tie) and a little too flamboyant for him.  He wore it once and gave it to Goodwill.  He swears the shirt was pink.  Pink may well be the most one of the most polarizing colors.  You don't dress your baby boy in pink, paint your house pink (unless you're in the John Cougar song Little Pink Houses) or paint your pick-up truck pink unless you're really making a statement.  You do put pink roses on a birthday cake, dress little girls in pink tutus, wear pink lipstick and plant pink roses.  It's a color  you choose carefully.  You don't fall back on it because it's safe, it's far too powerful.  It's strength lies in it's connotations.  When our caveman mixed up his first batch of pink pigment he knew he couldn't paint animals with it, it wasn't a practical color it was an extraneous luxurious color.  A color to delight in.