Shades of Blue...

Blue lagoon, blue moon, blue water, blue sea,blue sky . Bluebird, blue jay, bluefish, blue fox. Bluebell, bluebonnet, blueberry. Blue baby, Bluebeard, blue blood, blue book, bluebook, bluecoat, bluenose, blueprint, blue ribbon! Blue veins, blue eyes, blue hair. The blues. Blues singers. Blue Magic, the Big Blue, the Blue Sense, Blue Sense or Nonsense, the Thin Blue Line, blue law. Blue movies, blue ointment, bluebelles. A blue baby, blue funk!

Muddy Waters - "It's All Over"

"Color is life; for a world without colors appears to us as dead." "As flame begets light, so light engenders colors. Colors are the children of light and light is their mother." "Colors are forces, radiant energies that affect us positively or negatively, whether we are aware of it or not."

Blue. Why blue? A most ordinary color. The most ordinary color. "What is your favorite color?" " Oh, blue." So what's the big deal about blue? What is the significance of blue and why is it such a popular color?

Blue is for boys. Pink is for girls. Why is this? Blood while it's in the body as opposed to blood when it's outside the body? " Held in" as contrasted with "letting it all hang out." The rational versus the emotional. Is there a pattern here? Freud even speaks of the colours of some dreams, although he didn't appear to have any developed theory on the subject! But with the hysterical female and the constricted, Oedipal male; Sigmund might have gone along with some of these free thoughts and associations.

Colors can be thought of as referring to three quite different things:

1. a certain visual sensation, such as the sensation of blue
2. pigments which are chemical substances reflecting rays of light
3. the rays of light which stimulate the visual sensations.

However, all three are closely related because "blue pigment" reflects the "blue ray" which stimulate the "blue sensation." Picasso"s painting the "Absinthe Drinker" illustrates all these factors; having the blues, the blue of the moonlight and the seemingly unreal images of sadness that appear to float in blue.

Blue is always passive, always cold. Blue is contracted, introverted. Blue is associated with the nervous system. Blue is shadowy and tends to be in its greatest glory when displayed in darkness. (blue square on a black surface). Blue is an intangible nothing, and yet always present as the transparent atmosphere. It signifies faith to many. When blue is dimmed, it falls into the realm of the transcendental. A dichotomy? Dichromatic? Art examples are found in the paintings of the great masters, particularly in religious subjects: blue had meaning.

The deep blue of the sea and the distant mountains enchant us, give us a feeling of hope. The blue sunfilled sky has an active and enlightening effect, whereas the mood of the blue moonlit sky is passive and evokes subtle nostalgias. Blue reflections on the skin render it pale, as if moribund. Winter coloring connotes withdrawal, cold and centripetal brightness, radiance, and transparency.

Strauss - "Blue Danube"

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