Hubristic Orange

Orange is a hubristic color: proud and even excessively confident. It was a favorite color of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters. It is also a favorite color of nature. From the orange fall leaves of the beech, oak, and maple trees swirled with nuanced browns to the sweeping fields of California poppies, orange permeates the natural world.

Fall Colors of Sumac

Orange has a mystical quality: something I associate with sacred robes of Hinduism or Buddhism. It’s an underrated color in the West. Bright and cheerful yet relegated to be mostly an accent and hardly ever a star -- except at Halloween.

Jewelweed After a Fall Rain

I have orange accents in my living space. I was going to paint an accent wall orange, but I wimped out and painted it yellow instead. The throw pillows on my brown sofa have touches of orange. I have orange fake flowers in my dining room. I got the flowers at the end of the fall season at Michaels. I thought they were pretty and they were cheap. Honestly, the cheap part was the real sell. Well, that and they matched the pillows.

Common Daylillies

Fast food establishments sometimes decorate with orange because it makes people hungry. Other than that, I don’t really see a lot of orange except in nature. Traffic signs are sometimes orange -- maybe because it’s so unusual to see outside of nature that it catches our attention. The most significant use of orange in our society is relegated to the obligatory “pumpkin everything” at this time of year. I do understand that use. Pumpkins are easy to grow and ripen as a deafening crescendo to the harvest season.

Pumpkins From Our Farm

By the way, did you notice that orange has all but completely disappeared from Orange is the New Black? That’s too bad. I like orange. It’s almost a neutral color. Very few colors really clash with it. So, why isn’t it a staple color in everyone’s wardrobe? Maybe it’s because it makes you hungry.

Fused Glass Pendant -- Wasser & Bullseye Glass

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Fused Glass Slide --  Bullseye Glass