Traveling to Germany and not knowing German, I wondered how easy it would be to read the signs and get around. I laughed when I saw this sign my first day in Heidenheim, Germany. The language of color spoken internationally! Photo credit: ©Cristina Acosta

Color communicates. Any color expert, designer or artist will agree with that statement. But ask those creative types what exactly a color is communicating and the answers you get may have surprisingly little in common.

Here’s why: Color is a language that continually evolves with the cultures that contribute the shades and tones of meaning each of us sees. And, each individual brings their personal biases and perceptions to the mix, further complicating things.

Yes, you can open most any home decor magazine and read at least one color experts’ opinion based on a study about the calming effects of green – or beige – or . . . whatever the next color may be. But the truth is, the focus group that decides green is calming one year, may decide that mauve is calming next year. And, one more thing to keep in mind,  the experience of an individual and the particular mix of individuals in a focus group is always changing.

Consequently, the meaning of a color is a moving target. One person’s irritating red is another person’s energizing red. It’s all about time and place, people and perception.

So what do you do with this information when you’re standing in the paint store looking for an idea or some advice? Here’s a few tips:

• The first thing to do is to choose a group of colors you love that you think might work for the project. For example – If you’re choosing exterior home colors and are looking for 3 colors, pick at least a dozen that you think will work.

• Then (ideally, take some time with this step) clip the color samples into individual pieces and spread them on the table. Start choosing your favorites.

• When you’ve narrowed it down to at least 4 choices, THEN start choosing where the colors go. Such as this color for the body, this for the trim, this for the gable trim, etc.

Remember that when you are choosing colors, you are bringing a lifetime of experience to the process. Respect that first with a little exploration, then listen to the advice you get from friends and professionals. You’ll have a better feel for the color choices that are right for you.

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Walking through the streets of Bordeaux, France I saw these beautiful faded purple doors. Against the grays and browns of the buildings and the weather that day, the violet color brought a subtle and rich dimension to the street view. Photo: Cristina Acosta

Inspired by the colors in the landscape of urban city streets I've been exploring the colors by painting textiles. The sheer matte quality of the silk is the perfect substrate to convey the feeling of the colors from the street in Bordeaux, France. My intent was not to replicate the colors visually as much as to convey the sensations I received while walking through the colors in that landscape. Photo credit: Cristina Acosta

I’ve been thinking a lot about color and culture, and have been exploring that theme in my fine art for many years.

The landscape around us effects how we perceive color. The geography of a place along with the cycle of seasons as well as the weather and light  combine with the presence or absence of human culture to create the colors of a place.

In my  paintings and drawings other concerns (like image or texture) overtake this concept, so I decided to work with these color ideas in textiles.

Painting silk scarves for myself or friends is a relaxing way for me to play with color stories.  (And I have something fun to wear when I’m done!) This week I painted this silk scarf directly from the inspiration of some recent travels. I’ve been fortunate to be able to travel with my teenage daughter, Isabella Barna during her fencing competition season. She competed in a few fencing World Cups, so we both enjoyed traveling to both small and large towns in Europe for the events.

The many changes in landscape I’ve experienced this year contrast in my mind, mixing with the sensations of place. Each memory has a different palette of colors and values. Playing with these memories and translating them to visual ideas allows me to re-live the sensations of the memories as I create visual structure around them. It’s sort of like selecting photos for a scrapbook page, I select among the thoughts and feelings of memory for the creative expression.

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Roasted pasilla chiles stuffed with a ground pork and green chile mixture, topped with a pecan and queso fresco cream sauce, garnished with pomegranate seeds and served with sauteed plaintains.

Grilled prickly pear cactus leaves, jicama and tomatoes are julienned then tossed in a lime and olive oil dressing.

With color on my mind, this past weekend I cooked up a dinner party and menu with a color theme – the red, white and green of the Mexican flag.

Inspired by the cookbook, Frida’s Fiesta’s – Recipes and Reminiscences of Life with Frida Kahlo by Marie-Pierre Colle and Guadalupe Rivera, I’ve been experimenting with the recipes and themes in the book. A very beautiful cookbook, the photos and stories are inspiring. The recipes. . . well, they remind me of my abuelita’s (grandmother’s) recipes. Something very important is missing from most of them. The missing item is usually an ingredient, amount or technique that ranges between  crucial to the success of the recipe to a minor taste problem. Maybe the recipe editor had more to do with this than Frida did, but nonetheless, reading her cookbook reminds me of my abuelita’s passionate artistic temperament (she was a concert pianist and gifted chef). The recipes that my abuelita  gave me were always more of a suggestion than a solution.

With that in mind, I’ve been playing with the recipes, using them as a melody line I can embellish or rearrange as I play. I’m putting together Mexican / Chicano inspired recipes for a new cookbook I’ll publish this summer. Till then, here are a few of the dishes. Last weekend I presented each dish in the Mexican flag color scheme of red, green and white as a homage to Mexico and because it was a  fun design element to work with.

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Cross of marigold petals adorns this grave in the cemetery in the town of Ocotopec, Mexico. I took this photo with the scent of copal incense threading through the air in smokey streaks mixing with the sounds of mariachi musicians. Yellow flowers are for the mature souls of adults.

The mystery of life and death and spirit, the reality of change and the beauty of everything is a defining aspect of Mexican culture. Throughout Mexico and most anywhere a significant number of Mexican-Americans live, altars adorn public & private spaces. This spirituality with ancient roots is most visible during the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival  November 1st and 2nd.

Dia de los Muertos  (the Day of the Dead) is celebrated in Mexico and by Mexican Americans living in the U.S. As a holy day it is connected to the Catholic holy day All Saints’ Day, but is actually much older and pre-dates the Aztec. The celebration is spread through various other countries in Central and South America.

I saw this woman in the market in Cuernavaca. She carries the flowers for Dia de los Muertos altars. White is for the souls of deceased children.

Through the month of October, people prepare for Dia de los Muertos by preparing altars (ofrendas) to honor the dead. Depending upon the family or community traditions, altars can be elaborate rooms with effigies of the deceased surrounded by beauty, food and candles, or simple altars with a picture and a few items.

Brilliant colors and stark value contrasts between dark and light with the addition of warm earthen tones make up the complex palette of colors associated the Mexican Celebration of Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead). Not only are these colors seen among the flowers and decorations that make up the various ofrendas  (altars), foods and decor that are part of the celebration, the colors metaphorically and symbolically mirror the mystical underpinnings of the Dia de los Muertos celebration.

Because the veil between the living and the spirit world thins at this time of year, the colors of the Hispanic celebration of the Day of the Dead are both strong in hue and in contrast. Bridging those

Images of bones emerge from the warm skintone browns of this traditional Day of the Dead bread proffered by a street vendor in Ocotopec. Called Pan de Muerte (Bread of the Dead), the bread is sweet without being overwhelmingly rich.

strong colors and values is the warm brown color of pan de muerte, the traditional bread of Dia de los Muertos. Motifs of crossed bones emerge from small loaves the warm color of brown skin. What a beautiful metaphor and visual symbol of the ephemeral quality of life expressed through color meanings and symbology.

I didn’t grow up with the actual Dia de los Muertos celebration. Instead, when I was under the age of 10 my family celebrated a unique combination of All Saints Day and Halloween with a piñata (a Mexican tradition of a paper effigy of an animal or object that is stuffed with candy and then destroyed by children to release the treats). It was the type of culturally morphed celebration that fit into the surrounding neighborhood of Palos Verdes, California during the 60′s and 70′s.

Since then I’ve explored how the holiday is celebrated in Mexico and incorporated some of those ideas into my personal life. Being that I love making retablos (altars) with images of the divine feminine, such as the Guadalupe and Conquistadora, and have those retablos all over my house, decorating an altar for the season comes naturally.

For me personally, the time of Dia de los Muertos begins in October and continues to about mid-November. This is a beautiful season and  a time that I  specifically ask my ancestors and deceased friends and relatives to visit me with their gifts of wisdom and love. I usually get some sort of revelation or enriching experience during this time that especially helps me for the ensuing year.

Here are some guidelines to the symbolism of the items on a Dia de los Muertos ofrenda (altar):

Composition of a Dia de los Muertos Ofrenda (altar of offerings):

• Water – Source of Life
• Salt – Purification
  

  An effigy of the deceased (in photo) made of loofas draped in her clothing is the centerpiece of this huge ofrenda (altar) taking up an entire bedroom. I visited this home in Ocotopec and the family allowed this photo. Note the beauty and care put into every aspect of the decorations and offerings.

• Candle or light – Eternal love
• Copal or incense Offering to the gods -  Transmits prayers
• Flowers — the yellow flowers represent the sun, wealth and light to help souls find their way. The white flowers represent purity and often represent children.
• Mat, bed, table — a symbolic place of rest for souls. This is often the surface on which the altar rests.
• Toys — for young souls.
• Bread, tamales — sustenance
• The neck and the canes (bones) in the form of a wheel — this is the symbol on the Pan de Muerto, the traditional bread for Dia de los Muertos
• Items that pleased the deceased person and usually a photo, sometimes an effigy draped in
  

  Candy skulls made of sugar or chocolate are traditional food items for the Dia de los Muertos altar. I took this photo detail of the food offering at a public ofrenda (altar) in Tpotzlan, Mexico.

  the deceased’s clothing.

www.CristinaAcosta.com

The colors of white and silver (metallic light gray) are reliably at the top of auto sales lists annually. Faithful and reliable are attributes that keep people coming back year after year.

Sam the Snowman had it right when he sang, “Everyone wishes for silver and gold.” Sam, just in case you don’t know, was the narrator of  the 1964 classic Christmas TV special, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. But Sam the Snowman was only partly right. Though to be fair, Sam didn’t drive or carry a wallet.

According to Ford Motor Co., and PPG Industries (Pittsburgh Paint), car buyers in the U.S. still vote with their wallets for the color silver as the most popular car color in the U.S. for the 9th year in a row. Colors trailing behind silver are white, then black. The rest of the automobile color line-up varies by city and region.

Sometimes color preferences by region are obvious, like the practicality of owning white cars in hot dessert areas of the country. Sometimes color choices are not so easy to ascribe a meaning. Dee-Ann Durbin, an AP writer recently wrote about the Ford and PPG studies if you want the details.

Despite the apparent popularity of these current colors, you can’t help but wonder if they are as popular as they may seem. If every car buyer could easily custom order a paint color, the statistics might shift dramatically. I own a white vehicle, but only because it was (to me) the least obnoxious color on the lot when I bought my mini-van.

I also considered a white car because I avoid washing my car and white doesn’t seem to show  dirt as much as the other available car colors. My point in telling you this isn’t to share my preferences (or car-washing habits) as it is to give you some insight into the possible reasons behind a particular color choice.

Because silver and white are such popular car colors, car manufacturers will tend to play it safe and make more silver and white colored cars. Is the most popular car color the sign of a trend or a self-fulfilling prophecy?

So how does any of this color talk help you when you’re choosing colors for your home? My advice is to consider color trends with reservations rather than to accept that whatever color is trendy is right for you.

www.CristinaAcosta.com

White comes in many colors from warm beige whites to cool blue whites.

Crisp and fresh or harsh and sterile, a laundry line of contradictory meanings flap around the color white. How we understand color is based on who and where we are. And the meaning color has for us can change along with changes in our lives and our location. White on a tropical island is a very different experience from  white (as snow) covering a northern winter landscape.

I was looking at the color white  last week and realized that for me, white had became a symbol of global interconnection. How did a color I see every day suddenly have a new meaning? Here’s what happened.

Last week an early season snow of over 5 inches fell around my home in Oregon. As the snow piled up (and the shock wore off!) I noticed a strange thing about the color of the snow. It was tinged a warm white. At first the warm white color of the snow wasn’t noticeable, but as the layer of stained snow thickened, it was obvious that something unusual had happened.

Poking my fingers into the top layer of snow, I could remove that soil tinged beige layer of snow to reveal the cold blue-white layer of snow beneath that had fallen earlier as part of the same storm. It was a beautiful contrast of whites.

The next day the news reported that a dust storm in the neighboring state of Washington near Moses Lake over 300 miles away from my  home in Bend, Oregon had tinged the snowfall with the warm red topsoil from Eastern Washington farm lands.

Mother Nature was giving us a lesson in whites along with a reminder that the borders we humans put around our cities, states, territories and countries are invisible to her. During those moments I spent looking at the subtly colored layers of white snow, white became my new “green”.

The idea of white as a unifying color isn’t new. The color white is regularly used in home decor as an interior or exterior paint trim color that repeats often enough around a home that it unifies a variety of other colors. White is so popular in architecture that some paint companies such as Benjamin Moore, Pittsburgh Paints and Sherwin Williams have over one hundred whites in their paint lines to choose from.

White is everywhere from underwear to outerwear. It’s in most everybody’s closet and has been for decades. White dress shirts have been a mainstay of men’s business fashion for over a century. From baby diapers to bed sheets, the color white in some variation is one color I would bet most people on the planet have. Billions of people and the color white. The meanings will keep on.

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Unexpected combinations of color create beautiful views, like this set of doorways I quickly shot outside a restaurant in Oaxaca, Mexico

You may not know this, but you were covered in color symbolism, meanings and psychology from the day you saw your first pink or blue baby blanket.

Scientists, religions, governments, mystics and artists have always assigned meaning to colors over the centuries of human kind and there’s no way to get away from those meanings. Regardless of the culture you’re from you’ve been steeped in color symbolism.

How those color meanings translate for you depends upon when and where you were born as well as your gender, socio-economic status, the perception of your race and culture within the larger population, as well as your personal thoughts, beliefs and experiences.

That can be a lot of baggage for a color to carry. No wonder there are so many experts trying to decipher the language of color and meaning. The first big breakthrough in the color world was in 1670 when Issac Newton invented the colour wheel. The color wheel is based on his studies of optics and his observation that a prism breaks white light into the variety of colors we see in the visible spectrum.

The study of light and color captured scientists and artists for centuries, culminating in the perfect marriage of science and technology in the late 1800′s when the paint tube was invented.

With the invention of the paint tube, artists could venture into nature and paint the effects of light and color with an immediacy that shocked the art world. Artists now called Impressionists became masters of the retinal sensations of color. Monet, Seurat, Pissaro, and others led a visual revolution of color that seeped from the halls of science to stain artist’s canvases across Europe and then the world.

Within only a few years the Impressionists splintered into a variety of off-shoots including Post-Impressionists, Symbolists, Expressionists, and more. During the ensuing 120+ years the science and art of color and light has become tremendously refined.

With the rise of large corporations and the profession of marketing, there are new players creating color meaning. These companies hire color experts to suggest color schemes that will sell their goods and services to their target demographic of customers. Psychologists, scientists and technicians create tests and scenarios to determine and then predict the effects of color on a variety of human actions from how much and/or how fast a person eats to whether they linger over one color of computer screen longer than another.

Still, the Rosetta Stone of the language of color has eluded everyone. It seems that color meaning, with it’s attendant symbolism and psychology is a moving target. I love that alongside the inroads of science, the mystical and intuitive are integral to beautiful color use.

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Note: Hire me to create your commercial, residential and institutional color projects.

Playful young boy selling colorful wood and corn beads in Oaxaca, Mexico

It’s easy to stereotype a culture with a particular color palette, and Hispanic cultures, like Mexico are often seen by Northern neighbors through a lens  saturated with color. The tint of that lens, saturated with stereotypes can limit the perceptions within one’s gaze. It’s not always a bad thing. A stereotype exists because it identifies a characteristic, sometimes with a negative view and sometimes with a positive view. The problem with stereotypes happens when the stereotype overrides reality.

Mexico, Oaxaca city street scene is an example of natural stone colors mixed with painted vibrant colors. Note how this photo has colors similar to the beads the young boy is holding over his face.

The irony for me being an acculturated Latina born in Los Angeles is that I know that though Anglos from many cultures have representative crafts saturated with color, like Polish paper-cuts or Scandinavian tole painting, American Anglos will often focus on the colorful aspects of Mexican American visual culture while ignoring most of the subtle colors that are part of the same mix.

During the late 1990′s and early 2000′s when I was actively promoting my licensed line of signature home decor design, I was often  perplexed and baffled when potential clients would turn down my line with comments  that the colors were too bright. Especially when these same manufacturing companies were already heavily promoting the work of Anglo artists renowned for bright colors such as Laurel Birch, Susan Sargent and Mary Engelbreit.

Sweets offered by a Oaxacan street vendor display a variety of rich natural colors.

To this day, there are no Latina visual artists licensing their decor lines at the supported level of acceptance any of the above Anglo artists have achieved. Though I knocked on that licensing door and for a brief time thought I’d been invited in, I never was successful in my  licensing efforts at the time.

Though there is always someone who may claim sour grapes, I heard too many negative comments from manufacturers during that time that my colors and the style of my color use was  too particular to or representative of my Latino culture. The implied meaning was that the work would not sell. This happened despite an almost decade long successful national run of my imagery and design with my ceramc tile business.  A run that included years of free editorial coverage by mainstream mid-tier home decor magazines such as Better Homes & Garden’s Special Interest Publications and other periodicals.

The stone facade of this church in Oaxaca, Mexico, displays the variety of earthy tones similar to the street vendors tray of sweets.

With the perception of hindsight, I realize that what I was up against was a stereotype and a perception that I couldn’t vanquish. Though it seems so obvious to me now, at the time I never expected that  colors I painted with along with the link to my Spanish name would be inexorably linked with my Hispanic heritage in such a limiting fashion. Until then, I really thought that my talent and hard work spoke for itself.

When it finally hit me that my Latino heritage was the “elephant in the room” during my licensing negotiations, I redid my website and my marketing efforts, bringing the discussion of my Hispanic heritage front and center. I was frustrated that my art and the color stories I presented were only seen through the context created by stereotypes my potential clients could not seem to overcome.

During the ensuing years I’ve thought a lot about my experience with stereotypes and still haven’t found a simple or elegantly concise answer. What I know to be true is that the context my art and design were seen in by the manufacturers considering my line not only trumped content, it was a lens that obscured any content that didn’t echo their context. Why that context exists is a product of at least 150 years (the end of the Mexican War) of intercultural perceptions that have defined the U.S. and the complex relationship in U.S. society with Hispanic minority cultures. It’s a mindset that was too much for me to overcome.

For decades, American advertising that referred to Hispanics  in the U.S. has focused on the aspects of bright color within the Latino or Hispanic cultures without a nod to the rest of the colors present in the cultural environment. And like all humans, what we believe or have been prepared to believe is usually what we perceive to be true despite contradictory evidence.

I’ve included photos from a trip I took to Oaxaca to illustrate how opposite color palettes that are both bright or subtle can be culturally accurate. I chose photos from Mexico to illustrate the visual color concepts that are often associated with Mexican-Americans as well as other Hispanic cultures from other regions by the majority culture in the U.S.

You’ll see when you look at these photos that color schemes exist that are not always what we expect and where we expect to see them. Though I am asking you to look at the colors within a photograph, I am also asking you to look beyond  preconceptions you may have about Hispanic color palettes. Looking consciously is the first step to seeing clearly.

When we don’t acknowledge those things that exist just because we don’t want them to be there, we limit ourselves as a society. This is true whether you talking about politics, business or color. Everything is woven into our patterns of perception. Stereotypes are only a shorthand to perception, they don’t engender the clarity necessary for an inclusive society. And part of an inclusive society is visual representation at all levels.

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month is an opportunity to celebrate the beauties and gifts that are part of our country’s  heritage  as well as to acknowledge the mosaic of cultures that make up all of the U.S. During these trying times of environmental, political and economic upheaval it is more important than ever that we work together as a nation to create the best future possible for our progeny.

www.CristinaAcosta.com

Note: Cristina Acosta is a color consultant working for a variety of clients – residential, commercial and institutional. Hire her for your color expert.

Best Ever You magazine has invited me to be their Paint and Color Expert. The editor, Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino along with her team has put together an anomaly in the current publishing business climate; a successful and growing magazine. Kudos to the staff at Best Ever You!

Readers are encouraged to send in their color and paint questions. Though  I’m not able to answer questions individually, I will  include design and color solutions in my monthly column whenever possible.

I look forwards to working with Best Ever You. Check out the on-line magazine, you’ll be sure to find something that inspires, informs or entertains.

www.CristinaAcosta.com

White is not a common color in nature unless you're looking at snow. Nature mostly gives us accents of white as surf, clouds or rock.

Painting your ceiling white is not necessary or even always a good idea. White paint will not always make your room look larger, cleaner and more fashionable. Sometimes white will seem to expand the size of a room, but sometimes it’s a big mistake. Mostly, people paint their ceilings white because they don’t know what else to do.

I’m not exactly sure when white ceilings became fashionable, though I suspect the country’s fascination with white paint began in 1893 at the Chicago World’s Fair. The famed White City at the World’s Fair included a complex of buildings and streets over an area of hundreds of acres. Buildings were finished with white stucco and brightly lit with the new-fangled street lights. Acres of radiant whiteness must have been an entrancing alternative to the dark countryside and dimly lit city streets filled with dark tenement buildings.

Then, about thirty-five years later, the Great Depression hit the country and nobody was painting. Whitewash, a type of paint coating made with calsomine (from slaked lime) was a very cheap alternative to colored paints. It could take days to dry and usually rubbed off easily before it flaked off after a long winter. Often used as an exterior paint coat, whitewash was a stop-gap paint until a durable (and more expensive) paint could be purchased.

After World War Two and the resulting Baby Boom, suburbs of homes sprung up on the outskirts of cities all over the country, especially in the West. Cheap and fast construction of ranch style homes (often referred to as tract homes) dominated the scene. White paint was an inexpensive choice for the developer or builder, requiring no color mixing or color changing during the assembly-line like painting process necessary to get an entire tract of homes painted inexpensively.

The 1970′s famous white plaster splatter ceiling (sometimes mixed with glitter) was ubiquitous in many Western tract homes of the era. I’m guessing that a significant population of Americans alive today grew up looking up at white ceilings.

Times have changed. Current paint and coatings technology has resulted in paint with amazing qualities our grandparents wouldn’t have dreamed possible. Some paints dry in a hour or so, can be easily scrubbed, are available in different sheens and they have little to no odor. And, there are literally thousands of colors to choose from.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when considering a ceiling paint color:

• Use white or a light color on your ceiling when you have a lot of poisonous insects that you need to see. (No joke — in a tropical environment this could be an issue).
• When the ceiling is a different color than the walls, the area where the  ceiling and walls meet (line of demarcation) becomes a focal point. Unless your ceiling is interesting either architecturally or because it’s accented with beautiful moldings or beams, consider painting it the same color or a different color that is in a similar color value as the wall paint color.
• If the ceiling is low, paint the walls and ceiling the same color (a mid-value or lighter) so that there is no color change line (line of demarcation).
• Use a paint sheen on the ceiling that has some reflective qualities so that it bounces light. An eggshell sheen is a favorite.
• The only reason to use a flat or matte finish on the ceiling is to hide surface imperfections or to reduce reflected light.
• If the ceiling is particularly beautiful or interesting and it works with the design of the room to emphasize the ceiling, vary the colors, color values and sheens on the ceiling to complement the wall colors.
• Your local paint store professional can give you additional guidance after you’ve choosen your initial colors and explain your design ideas.

www.CristinaAcosta.com