Blue

I fell in love with the color blue while living on the island of St. Kitts in the mid-90’s. I was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer, teaching art and spending an extraordinary amount of time outside in the sea, on the mountain and in the cane fields running, biking and swimming. When I left to go to grad school at Yale University, I missed the blues more than anything. That first winter in New Haven found me at various artisan sales, and I found the most incredible pair of blue earrings. At the time they seemed frightfully expensive, and I didn’t know if I could really afford them, but they represented the blues that I loved so vividly that I threw caution to the wind and bought them. I wore them nearly every single day for six or seven years. I planned outfits around them, I purchased clothes to match them, and even began to decorate my apartment in various shades of blues because of them. I don’t wear them very much anymore, more because they’ve become fragile from such use and I don’t want to lose them. But I think about the color often.

Why am I writing about this today? Well I created a collage this year in a class that I took at IS 183. I needed a low pressure class where someone told me what to do, instead of the other way around. I collaged, I painted and I created all sorts of things, including this collage/painting. I am posting this for Karen Arp-Sandel who taught the course and who inspires so much in so many people. To you Karen, I thank you!