Color Theory and Other Nonsense

So, maybe I have reached my expiration date with regard to Facebook.  I would gladly overlook the poor spelling, punctuation, and grammar, if not for the lack of content.  The combination has finally pushed me over the edge.  I’m not saying I am any better than others who have posted random nonsense.  One afternoon a couple of weeks ago, I notified the world that I was drinking Merlot and listening to Portishead.  I doubt if anyone cared.  I could have been sucking down a vodka martini (a.k.a. vodkatini, but no one really calls them this…) and mellowing out to Willie Nelson.  Would that have changed anything? 

Now if I posted directions on how to make a perfect Grey Goose martini (shake it like you mean it) or if I explained why I prefer Elvis’ rendition of “Always on My Mind” to Willie’s, there would have at least been something for the average reader to virtually brush up against.  And besides, no one listens to Portishead anymore, even though their album Dummy was listed as number 419 on Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums of all time.  Of course, that was in 2003, so that’s old news, too.  And even though I read that “Always on My Mind” was originally performed by Brenda Lee, “I’m Sorry,” but I have never heard her version of it.  (She is still alive, by the way, and living in Nashville.)

While I was swilling wine, I never mentioned that Merlot, which is an offspring of Cab Franc and a sibling to Cabernet Sauvignon, is looked down on by some wine snobs.  Perhaps I don’t have a very discriminating palate (not to be confused with palette).  Or perhaps I like it because the grapes are best picked late in their season when they have that full-bodied fruity flavor that comes with a bit of over-ripeness, because I too, feel a certain delicious, full-bodied ripeness creeping upon me from time to time, especially in the autumn.

Of course, I am not all that picky about where my alcohol comes from.  I have never turned up my nose at vodka just because it was not made from potatoes.  But I know people who have.  I will even confess that I sometimes drink a martini straight up with no vermouth!  Oh the shame…

And while I was drinking my mediocre merlot, I failed to mention that Tara Vineyards wants to use another of my paintings as the label on one of their new reds.  The image is a 1964 red Chrysler 300 and is titled “Seeing Red.”  And while those who choose this wine because of the label’s image will probably never know that I originally cut out that car from a magazine on the day of my fifth birthday, or that I spent that evening cutting out red objects, symbolizing my rage over my parents forgetting that it was my birthday, it probably won’t matter to them either that recent theories with regard to color’s cognitive effects on the human mind note that the color red heightens the average human’s appetite for food and enhances sexual arousal. 

And while they are drinking their wine and listening to  the blues, they will never know that I have personally always been drawn to blue, a color that enhances creativity.