I am overcome whenever I see a blue like this. Cobalt blue. Yves Klein Blue. YInMN Blue. My heart quickens; I can’t stop smiling; I’m sure my eyes dilate. All the signs of love. I want to dive into such a blue, merge with it.

This love affair with color began with my first set of 64 Binney & Smith crayons. You know them as Crayola but they weren’t always such. I can still see six-year-old me sitting on the floor of my room lost in sounding out the names of each paper-wrapped stick of visual magic. Magenta! Periwinkle! Mulberry! Bittersweet! Goldenrod! I memorized the subtleties between Forest Green and Pine Green; Raw Umber and Burnt Sienna; Brick Red and the (appropriately now-retired) Indian Red.

I dreaded ruining the points of all my blue crayons but I had no choice. Aquamarine set me sailing, while Midnight Blue seated me beneath a starry sky way past my bedtime. Cornflower felt like a summer day and Periwinkle made me swoon. The shade of blue to the left, the shade of delphinium and the Girl with the Pearl Earrings head wrap delights me  like no other. I don’t know why, but every time we cross paths, I am happy to be alive to enjoy it.

What color zings your strings? What hue colors you happy? Share, please!

 

UPDATE

This week’s shout-out to blue was planned before I saw today’s  NYTimes story on YInMN Blue (2.7.2021, Sunday Style section, page 3.) It’s leapt from the lab and has made it into Crayola’s offerings under the name Bluetiful.  Limited availability for artists, but hopefully not for long.

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