More Purple

I try to stay open to working with colors and shapes that do not immediately appeal to me. If I worked only with my favorite colors, I would be surrounded by (and wearing only) a panoply of shades and patterns of purple, red, turquoise, and indigo with black highlights. Instead, I occasionally allow beige, green, white, grey, yellow, gold, brown, and (ugh!) pink to enter the workshop. The challenge then is to transform these into something I can enjoy. Slivers of pink may transform a turquoise and indigo print into a vibrant spectacle. A boring rectangle of gold and grey flying geese can be sliced into segments that join seams with a purple and red stripe for greatly enhanced flights of fancy. Surprisingly (to me), yellow does have occasional beneficent effects in a dark red landscape. I was surprised by the bold (and pleasing) effect of a white and black mosaic, with red contrast of course. Somehow, I think that there is a life lesson in this, as there is in almost everything that happens in the workshop: accept experiences that don’t immediately meet my preferences. This could be as simple as the choice of a movie or trying an item of cuisine outside my usual color palette. Or it could mean traveling off itinerary or even cultivating love when my first reaction is to shy away and seek more purple.