19 March
It’s only natural
It’s Turquoise month!
Here at the MY studio we celebrate the world of changing colours month by month, focusing on particular hues in the colour wheel as they relate to the seasons. (IMG. Colour wheel)
I always see March as an exciting time brought on by the warming of the seas, and the greening of the leaves. This is why I identify early spring with Turquoise. Nature has a fairly predictable colour cycle which isn’t too hard to align, more or less to the colour wheel. I’m going to give it my best shot at proposing a few things I see lining up in nature, physics, culture and stuff, and try now to relate it back to colour and why colour is just so damn splendid.
You see, I observe colour as a combination of two incredible sciences. Firstly there’s the miracle of physics ie: the established understanding of the laws of the universe, gravity, time, relativity, light, mass and force.
The second is the wonder of biology, or nature, and all living things in their most splendid diversity and variety. So now, here is the really simple way of putting it without waffling on too much: basically the way I see it is that nature provides the colour, and we need the physics of light to be able to observe and appreciate it. Hence, two sciences working hand in hand. (IMG: light prism, colourful gecko Camelion) I’m sure there are loads of other factors such as chemistry that one could argue for, but I quite literally know nothing about chemistry, and I can only hold your attention for so long.
Both nature and physics are bound by rules of commonality. What I’m trying to say here is that we understand physics to be governed by an established set of constant laws and rules. Nature however while still quite ruley, is structured more cyclically, with the life cycle of most organisms tuned into the movement of the earth’s rotation and the annual journey around our star. The variety of colours we see in our world we owe to this cyclical change, such as seasonal shifts, flowers in spring, autumnal tints and icy winters. There is an inherent constancy to nature, as these cycles are annual, and we all share the influences of our celestial machinations with beautiful, colourful consequence.
Why is it then we struggle so hard to find commonality and consistency in our cultural existence on the earth?
I cant help but reflect on the struggles we face in the world, and wonder if we looked at the beauty of what unites us we may find a greater peace.
For example, almost all countries on earth have some kind of cultural craft and textile tradition embedded into their identity. This is such a fantastic cultural commonality, as wondrous as our earth’s common biological evolutions across different species. (IMG: Azerbaijan textiles)
The colour philosophy I use at Madrigal Yarns is to intertwine colours of a complementary nature to create a beautiful textured appearance, like the voices of Medieval Madrigal song, weaving and intertwining to create a rich and textured soundscape. (IMG Yarn – shamrock)
The intertwining of lives, cultures and stories is really what Madrigal Yarns philosophy is all about. It’s about celebrating our common ground and beliefs. It’s about love and respect for all the world’s peoples, appreciating our similarities and our differences, and finding the common joy in our lives brought through beautiful, unrepentant, glorious colour.