On Blue

A white Cycladic house hanging on the volcanic cliffs of Santorini, framed by an impossibly blue sky and sea, will certainly put you in a joyous mood, unless, of course, you’re a grumpy teenager from Seattle who just formed a grunge band in the late 80s.

Color is a strange thing. It loves to play tricks on our eyes and minds. Let's take a look at the two circles in the center of the squares below. The one on the left seems significantly brighter than the one on the right, which seems much darker and somewhat greener. But when we remove the squares, we find the two circles have exactly the same shade of blue.

Throughout the day, sunlight changes the colors it touches. Perhaps nothing changes its color more visibly than the sky. From dawn to dusk, the sky constantly shifts its shade. At first light, the eastern sky is painted in a gradation of ultramarine, soon changing to Egyptian blue. Then, cobalt blue reigns the morning sky until around noon, when a lighter electric blue takes over. As the day grows, a shade deeper, cerulean takes over. At dusk, the sky gives way to many hues of red and orange. But only for a little while. The blue hour takes over the sky again, shifting to woad, then indigo, before fading to the black of night. And of course, this all depends on weather and season.

More than we realize, the juxtaposition of the sky and the world beneath changes our mood. For example, a forest will feel welcoming under a blue morning sky. But at sunset, the same forest will appear foreboding. The forest stays the same. It is our perception that changes.

We are always surrounded by colors. The colors we wear and their relationships to surrounding colors change how other people perceive us. A blue dress will read differently depending on what surrounds it — the environment, the time of day, the people around us. With some color combinations, the dress will make us look sharp and intelligent. In others, the same blue dress makes us feel warm and friendly. Say you're standing next to someone wearing black. In most situations, people would see you as the more approachable one.

In a strange way, we are always traveling through many alternate universes as the colors that surround us continually shift their shade and combinations throughout the day, changing the way we see the world and the way we appear in others' eyes.