Vampiric Colors

"Color?" said the vampire. "Is that all? Color iss eazy-peazy. How soon do you vant it?"
—Terry Pratchett, The Truth, 2001

Black silk, white incisors, blood-red lips, pallid complexions, deep purple velvet. Truly, "the horror of vampirism is expressed in color" (Diane Negra, The Irish in Us, 2006). The timeless lore of vampires has left a colorful and enduring mark on world culture. If you think most vampires sport Transylvanian accents and Carpathian fashions, think again. Chinese vampires (Geung-Si), for example, have a rich history of their own. Their limbs stiffened by rigor mortis, Chinese vampires move by hopping, their arms outstretched like zombies to seize their prey. They have long fangs and even longer fingernails, which they use to stab their victims and suck out the life energy. They wear traditional Manchu robes of black silk and round black hats from the Qing dynasty. What turns a corpse into a Chinese vampire? A lingering lust for revenge, an improper burial, a violent death, or a mischievous spirit. Chinese vampires can be stopped only by Taoist priests armed with magic talismans. The priest paints red calligraphy onto a yellow strip of parchment and slaps the talisman onto the vampire's ghastly white forehead, rendering him immobile. Makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin has a tip for making very dark vampire colors less extreme and severe. He recommends surrounding the vampire color with taupe or brownish-gray (Jessica Pallingston, Lipstick, 1999).

Because vampires are allergic to sunlight, vampiric colors often evoke the shades of midnight:

by LOKAOTICO

As vampires are sustained by blood, it comes as no surprise that there are a great many sanguinary colors:

by Wellstone

It takes a pointed tooth to draw blood:

Immortality carries with it the dust of the ages:

by Jim Frazier

No bedroom of the living dead would be complete without a coffin:

Some vampires sport unnatural complexions:

The classic vampire mane is black:

Vampiric wardrobes reflect the height of gothic fashion:

Has there ever been a vampire with garlic breath?

by msmall

The easiest way to break a vampire's heart is with a wooden stake:

A talisman can also do the trick:

[Read the entire article in my guest blog at ColourLovers.com.]

by Maproom Systems

Dawn, and the little flocks of silver- enameled tanks on every hill and the fifty- five thousand barrel tanks in the valley made you think of diamonds in a dime- store brooch — so much wealth in such an outlandish place.

The purple ribbons of oil splashed down every hill and turned brown and gold in the sun. Up the valley the lights on the drilling rig winked out.
Jim Thompson, Character at Iraan, 1930; Fireworks: The Lost Writings of Jim Thompson, 1988.

"A most concrete ghost, it has revealed itself in office blocks towering above Kuala Lumpur."
—Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown, Chinese Business Enterprise, 1996

by André F.

Six women dancing together on a red stage naked / The leaves are green on all the trees in Paris now / I will be home in two months and look you in the eyes
—Allen Ginsberg, "Message, 1958," from Collected Poems 1947—1997.

Pure Photography: The Black and White of a Fleeting Artistic Movement

Established in 1932, the Pure Photography movement boasted a palette with a maximum of two colors. Pure photography was defined as being completely free of any other artistic movement. That meant it had to be free of qualities of technique, composition, and objective. Due to its strict requirements, the possible body of work was severely limited. That's why the visual poet Geof Huth calls Pure Photography "one of the shortest artistic movements of all time." As it is such a narrow school of art, Huth was able to complete all the possible works of the genre in a single day. He explains: "A black & white photograph might look like it is made out of grays, but it is made out of bits of black organized on the surface of a white sheet, so in its purest form it is either all black or all white."

by DitB

Huth's technique was simple: "The black photograph must be exposed to uncontrolled light, so I turned on the lights in the darkroom, exposed the paper & then developed the photograph. The white photograph must never be exposed to light; it is fixed so that it never changes from its white beginnings. I framed one of these photographs in a bright metal frame, but I don't know where it is anymore."

[Read the entire article in my guest blog at ColourLovers.com.]

Jeff writes:

by sparkypics

It was one of those blue and lavender nights when the luminous color seems to have been blown over the scene with an air brush. Even the darkest shadows held some purple.
—Nathaniel West, The Day of the Locust, 1933.

by nasiuduk

A Black, E white, I red, U green, O blue : vowels, / I shall tell, one day, of your mysterious origins: / A, black velvety jacket of brilliant flies / Which buzz around cruel smells,

Gulfs of shadow; E, white- ness of vapours and of tents, / Lances of proud glaciers, white kings, shivers of cow- parsley; / I, purples, spat blood, smile of beautiful lips / In anger or in the raptures of penitence;

U, waves, divine shudderings of viridian seas, / The peace of pastures dotted with animals, the peace of the furrows / Which alchemy prints on broad studious foreheads;

O, sublime Trumpet full of strange piercing sounds, / Silences crossed by Worlds and by Angels: / O the Omega, the violet ray of Her Eyes!
—Arthur Rimabuad, "Vowels" (Voyelles), 1871, translated by Oliver Bernard, 1962.

Ancient Colors

The roots of color technology trace back to Ancient Egypt, where visionary chemists concocted recipes for synthetic pigments. Color (Ancient Egyptian name 'iwen') was an essential part of life in ancient Egypt, adding deeper meaning to everything the people created. Paintings, clothing, books, jewelry, and architecture were all imbued with colorful symbolism. African historian Alistair Boddy-Evans explains that color "was considered an integral part of an item's or person's nature in Ancient Egypt, and the term could interchangeably mean color, appearance, character, being, or nature. Items with similar color were believed to have similar properties."

Egyptologist Anita Stratos informs us that the Egyptian palette had six colors:

by Cesras

• red (desher)
• green (wadj)
• blue (khesbedj and irtiu)
• yellow (kenit and khenet)
• black (khem or kem)
• white (shesep and hedj)

Boddy-Evans notes that organic sources yielded two basic colors: crushed bones and ivory provided white pigment, and soot provided black. Red dye was produced from the dried bodies of female scale insects (family Coccidae, genus Kermes). Indigo and crimson pigments came from plants. Most other colors were made from mineral compounds, Stratos notes, "which is why they retained their vibrant colors throughout thousands of years."

Ancient Egyptians considered green to be a positive and powerful color, Egyptologist Geraldine Pinch notes (Magic in Ancient Egypt, 1995). It was associated with fertility, growth and regeneration. "A person was said to be doing 'green things' if his behavior was beneficial or life producing," Stratos says. "Wadj, the word for green, which also meant to flourish or be healthy, was used for the papyrus plant as well as for the green stone malachite. Green malachite was a symbol of joy. In a larger reference, the phrase 'field of malachite' was used when speaking of the land of the blessed dead."

Blue and turquoise were considered divine colors and appropriate for sacred places. Stratos explains that "Dark blue, also called 'Egyptian' blue, was the color of the heavens, water, and the primeval flood, and it represented creation or rebirth. The favorite blue stone was lapis lazuli, or khesbed, which also meant joy or delight. . . . There is also a theory that blue may have been symbolic of the Nile and represented fertility, because of the fertile soils along the Nile that produced crops. Because the god Amen (also spelled Amon or Amun) played a part in the creation of the world, he was sometimes depicted with a blue face; therefore, pharaohs associated with Amen were shown with blue faces also. In general, it was said that the gods had hair made of lapis lazuli."

Stratos explains that red was considered a very powerful color, "symbolizing two extremes: Life and victory as well as anger and fire. Red also represented blood. . . . In its negative context of anger and fire, red was the color of the god Set, who was the personification of evil and the powers of darkness, as well as the god who caused storms. Some images of Set are colored with red skin. In addition, red-haired men as well as animals with reddish hair or skins were thought to be under the influence of Set. A person filled with rage was said to have a red heart."

"In the Graeco-Egyptian papyri, a special kind of red ink, which included ochre and the juice of flaming red poppies, was used," Pinch says.

The color yellow "designated the eternal and the indestructible, also considered to be qualities of the sun and of gold," says Stratos. "Many statues of the gods were either made of gold or were gold-plated; in fact, Egyptians believed the gods' skin and bones were made from gold. Tomb paintings showed gods with golden skin, and pharaohs' sarcophagi were made from gold, since the belief was that a deceased pharaoh became a god." Incidentally, the color orange would have been classified as yellow in Ancient Egyptian times.

Sometimes, Stratos notes, yellow was used interchangeably with white. "White denoted purity and omnipotence, and because it had no real color, it represented things sacred and simple. White was especially symbolic in the religious objects and ritual tools used by priests. Many of these were made of white alabaster, including the Apis Bulls' embalming table. 'Memphis,' a holy city, meant 'White Walls,' and white sandals were worn to holy ceremonies. White was also the color used to portray most Egyptian clothing."

Black was a symbol of night, death, and the underworld. Stratos explains: "We see this reflected in Osiris, who was referred to as 'the black one' because he was king of the afterlife, and also with reference to the god of embalming, Anubis, who was portrayed as a black jackal or dog. Because Queen Ahmose-Nefertari was the patroness of the necropolis, she was often shown with black skin." Black also symbolized resurrection, an idea likely related to "the dark silt left behind by the annual Nile flood. From the most ancient Egyptian times, Egypt was known as Kemet, or 'the black land,' because of the dark soil of the Nile Valley; therefore, the color black symbolized Egypt itself. When used to represent resurrection, black and green were interchangeable."

[Read the entire article in my guest blog at ColourLovers.com.]

by Kabirdas

Oh say can you see in the dark you / observe Minerva nerveless in Nirvana because Zeus rides reindeer thru Bethlehem’s blue sky. / Its Buddha sits in Mary’s belly waving Kuan Yin’s white hand at the Jang- tze that Mao sees, / tongue of Kali licking Krishna’s soft blue lips.
—Allen Ginsberg, Holy Ghost on the Nod over the Body of Bliss, 1966, from Collected Poems 1947-1997.

by bullish1974

I can remember every second of that morning, if I shut my eyes I can see the deep blue colour of the sky and the mango leaves, the pink and red hibiscus, the yellow handkerchief she wore round her head, tied in the Martinique fashion with the sharp points in front, but now I see everything still, fixed for ever like the colours in a stained- glass window. Only the clouds move.
—Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea, 1966.

Colors to Seek Out and Avoid During Exams

Can particular colors affect a student's performance on exams? Color expert Mark D. Fairchild says yes. He cites recent research establishing an "aversion" response to the color red. "If people are exposed to red just before taking an exam they perform slightly less well than if they were exposed to a different color. The cause of this aversion response is not yet known; it could be learned or it could be something intrinsic that causes us to 'fear' red (just a little). This has also been found in sporting events where athletes dressed in red tended to be more successful . . . perhaps because their opponents were viewing it and having an aversion response (rather than the red having an effect on the athlete wearing it)."

Colin Wilson, an investigator of mysteries, offers a reasonable explanation for the red-aversion phenomenon. "Psychological tests have shows that when subjects are exposed to bright red, blood pressure increases and the heartbeat speeds up. (Exposure to green causes a drop in blood pressure; the same is true of dark blue.) . . . This is largely explainable in perfectly ordinary terms. Green soothes us because it is the color of nature. . . . Red excites because it is the color of blood and therefore of violence. Blue has a subduing effect because it is the color of nightfall. This has always been so, since animals first developed color vision" (Mysteries, 2006).

Prof. Fairchild concurs that color most certainly plays a large role in one's emotional life, though the effects are inconsistent. "The effects (both the type and strength) are very individual. A color that makes me feel happy or energized might make you feel sad or tired. There are various reasons for these responses, but essentially they are learned from either cultural practices or significant individual events. There is a lot of misinformation on this topic. A good book for more information is Faber Birren's Color and Human Response."

by ---m---

Here are some blues and greens students might consider seeking out at test time:

Here are some reds that students might consider avoiding at test time:

[Read the entire article in my guest blog at ColourLovers.com.]

by n@n@figue

We are cross- stitching silk roses on a pale background. We can colour the roses as we choose and mine are green, blue and purple. Underneath, I will write my name in fire red, Antoinette Mason, née Cosway, Mount Calvary Convent, Spanish Town, Jamaica, 1839.
—Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea, 1966.

Literary rapscallion Jonathan Caws-Elwitt wonders whether one can "like it and lump it":

Humorist Jonathan Caws-Elwitt's plays, stories, essays, letters, parodies, wordplay, witticisms and miscellaneous tomfoolery can be found at Monkeys 1, Typewriters 0. Here you'll encounter frivolous, urbane writings about symbolic yams, pigs in bikinis, donut costumes, vacationing pikas, nonexistent movies, cross-continental peppermills, and other compelling subjects.