Color

decoding colors

how many colors in each poem?
where are the rainbows?

blues greens golds
yellows browns chartreuse
pink reds and maroons

color decoding

workrooms now stilled

the swirling tasks

wound round

glowing as 

fluorescent sunshine

Farewell Fruitlands.  Thanks to all at Fruitlands and The Trustees and all that visited 'anything but drab' over the last six months.  So grateful. 

’anything but drab’ on view 
(4 more days) thru Sunday Nov 2
Fruitlands Museum,Harvard, MA
open Thursday to Sunday, 10am-4pm 

big thanks to Curator Christie Jackson
for inviting me to collaborate with her
& to make a project in a former
Shaker building 

--thanks to the Trustees ARC staff aka Archives
--thanks to Fruitlands Stewardship team
--thanks to all the behind the scenes Trustees staff & The Trustees
--thanks to Kate Wool for the stunning photographs
.
thanks to everyone that stopped by
to view the exhibition,
to fold paper into books,
to watch me dip my hands in an indigo dye bath,
to listen to poetry and
to hear us talk about color.

I'm so grateful. Thank you.

color mandate

dive into each color
drop into rooms clad with sky
stand on floors ochred

……

Join us tomorrow October 18
for a ‘colorful conversation'

Curator Christie Jackson
and I will be talking color
at Fruitlands Museum
2pm-3:30pm
.
.
.
Fruitlands Museum
102 Prospect Hill Road
Harvard MA 01451

start of the studio day
a minute minute collage

tear out first image that 
strikes my fancy
quickly find 2 or 3 more
glue together
pin on wall

now gathered 
into summer’s fullness

coerce color

coerce color from walls
onto stilled photographs

unexpected vibrancy
cool crisp containment

palest pink pegs
perfectly aligned

kerchief so finely woven
becomes a cloud

goldenrod echoed
chrome yellow

vibrant victorious
trip to the sun

ice blocks stacked high
palest blue indigo sky

geranium red dresses
azure blue aprons

slate drab bonnet ruffles
cobalt vests

golden butternut
great coats

buildings on a map

…………

Walking through Williamstown, MA, Look UP!! Banners by local artists grace the downtown streets! See all the banners, HERE.

Eyes on Art Town banner exhibition is a collaborative project of The Town of Williamstown, Williamstown Cultural District and Williamstown Chamber of Commerce. The banner exhibition is made possible with grant funding from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

madder cochineal annatto sappanwood, 2025, watercolor, ink, threads, photographs, arches paper

Join me this Saturday 20 September at Fruitlands Museum (Harvard, MA) from 11am-3pm for a drop-in dye demonstration —indigo, madder & goldenrod.  

I’ll be outside the former Shaker office, where you can view my installation ‘anything but drab’ inside.

an excerpt below of my poem ‘any color they could dye’ using dye names from historic dye books—



any color they could dye
 
reds of--
pink with French plums
cochineal and crimson
rose pink to peachwood
reds of pink paleness
pink white primroses
barnwood red with beetroot
scarlet berries with geranium
 
oranges
golden
turmeric
orange
 
yellows
of bark
of gold 
of brown
of yellow green
 
greens
wood green and yellow green
invisible and deep green
chem bottle and deep grass green
olive and pea and myrtle green
slate and blue green
 
blues
a Spanish fly
a blue fawn
a magazine blue
a chemical magazine
a royal a slate and a Prussian blue
a bluesoblack
a bluesodrab
 
drabs
drab drab drabs
reddish red
sandy
silver 
sage
salmon and dove
beavers and gloves
drab drab drab
 
purples
puce purple and crimson
deep purple deep maroon
logwood lavender lilac
fast purple fast maroon
 
browns
a very fast fawn brown
olive with claret brown
coffee chocolate cinnamon brown
damson

blacks
dutch black
imperial weighted
 
greys
of bark
of liver
of dark smoke
and batwings
and doves

indigo | goldenrod | madder | installation view photograph by Kate Wool

Fruitlands Museum, 102 Prospect Hill Road, Harvard, MA 01451 | 978.456.3924

“We look closely at the magic mirror, stand back from it, try to empty our minds of all else, strive to grasp the meaning of every colour, each one of which brings to mind memories of past impressions, which arrange themselves in an architecture as immortal and varied as the colours on the canvas, and build up our imagination, a landscape.”


images for ‘prismatic utopia’ taken at New Lebanon, Fruitlands, Hancock, Canterbury, Winterthur & many studios in between
 
[quote | Marcel Proust on Art and Literature 1896-1919,’ translated by Sylvia Townsend Warner]

juxtaposition
simultaneity

reading about the Royal Pavilion Brighton
pigments & colors reds pinks blues yellows
used across the ocean at the same time
by Shakers on interior building surfaces

techniques of David Ramsay Hay found in his 1828 book
“The Laws of Harmonious Colouring Adapted to House Painting’
‘architectural colour schemes’
personal taste
function of building
function of the room
geographical location
orientation to the light source

taking into account
surfaces materials and objects
unity balance and harmony
coloured furniture

Shakers used the
technology of the time
new pigments & concepts
a colour zeitgeist.a rainbow wave ridden

Thanks again to Dr. Alexandra Locke for your colour guidance and amazing new publication

[Hay information from Dr. Alexandra Loske’s new book, ‘The Royal Pavilion Brighton: A Regency Palace of Colour and Sensation’ as well as images from the book]

[Shaker gift drawings from ‘Heavenly Visions: Shaker Gift Drawings and Gift Songs’ curated by Frances Morin]

yellow yellow blue blue  shiny
 
 
what does blue sound like
and chrome egg yolk yellow
or a pink mourning cloud
 
dark indigo weft
maximized to shimmer
jars your eyes
 
an ethereal
euphoric
emphasis
 
embodied into 
extraordinary
reverie

images: goldenrod at dawn, Mary Gartside’s Yellow colour blot, Polly Jane Reed’s Spiritual Map, The Holy City and chrome yellow in situ at the brick dwelling

pale sky blue
fluorescent sunshine
celestial gold
purple standard
cochineal pink
claret scarlet
cherry violet
chrome green
indigo blue
reddish yellow
slate drab

radiant rainbow

prototyping prismatic utopia
pages and poems

tables set
with colors
unfolding
.
with color
captured 
in jars

‘anything but drab’ on view at Fruitlands Museum
Banqueting Table in Colour exhibition at Brighton Pavilion
.
.
I’ll be onsite at Fruitlands Museum this Saturday August 9 for a pop-up book making workshop from 12pm - 3pm.

Fruitlands Museum, 102 Prospect Hill Road, Harvard, MA. Thursday - Sunday, 10am til 4pm.

And today, August 6th is Arrival Day.  The day Mother Ann and 8 followers arrived in the port of New York City.  251 years ago today. An egalitarian pacifist non-materialist communal society still going strong today at Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village.