Daily Archives: July 31, 2012

Weekly Photo Challenge: Purple

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“I think it pisses God off when you walk by the color purple in a field and don’t notice it.”  Shug.  The Color Purple by Alice Walker.

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This Weekly Photo Challenge took me a while to complete.  It is amazing how much purple you see out there in the world when you have it in the back of your mind that you need to take a photo of something purple.  A lot more people wear purple clothing than I had originally realized, or drive purple cars.  There was even a woman at the Lake Kathryn Village Market who added purple streaks to her silver-white hair.  I finally found this amazing arrangement of purple orchids in the fireplace lobby betwtten the One and Two Union Square buildings.  I took the photo with my phone and the LOMO app.

To this day, the first image I think of when I think about “purple” is Charlie McWhorter, even twenty years after the last time I saw him.  Charlie was a huge benefactor at Interlochen Center For The Arts and also known for his clothing.  If he wore red, it was everything red and all red.  Purple was by far most everyone’s favorite.  Hat, boots, shirt, pants, leather jacket, all purple (only accented with an impressive drenching of torquoise jewelry).  While simotaneously recognizing the abundance of purple out there in the world, I was also realizing that there is absolutely no purple in my life anywhere.  A complete void of all jewel tones, actually.  I guess it is also void of all earth tones, too.  [in the spirit of full-disclosure, I do own a hot pink hoodie, a couple pairs of khakis, and my living room carpet is beet red]  I am completely comfortable and happy in my otherwise black-gray-blue-white life.  I feel a yellow kitchen, red car, or even an orange t-shirt do not match my sensibilities.  I would much rather have  almost monochromatic rooms that I could fill with colorful art and people than orange, red, and green accent walls and feel trapped in a 24/7 clown birthday party.  I have spent most of my life trying not to be noticed, it would seem out of character and a bit desparate for me to drive a red car.

The Wiki:

Purple is a range of hues of color occurring between red and blue.  In additive light combinations it occurs by mixing the primary colors red and blue in varying proportions. It is a secondary color because two colors (blue and red) make up this color.  In subtractive pigments it can be equal to the primary color magenta or be formed by mixing magenta with the colors red or blue, or by mixing just the latter two, in which case a color of low saturation will result.  Low saturation will also be caused by adding a certain quantity of the third primary color (green for light or yellow for pigment).

The actual color of Tyrian purple, the original color purple from which the name purple is derived, is the color of a dye extracted from a mollusk found on the shores of the city of Tyre in ancient Phoenicia (present day Lebanon) that in classical antiquity became a symbol of royalty because only the very wealthy could afford it. Therefore, Tyrian purple was also called imperial purple.

Read some of the other takes on purple:

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Molly Ivins – Style Icon

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NAME: Molly Ivins
OCCUPATION: Comedian, Journalist
BIRTH DATE: August 30, 1944
DEATH DATE: January 31, 2007
PLACE OF BIRTH: Monterey, California
PLACE OF DEATH: Austin, Texas

BEST KNOWN FOR: Molly Ivins was an American political satirist with a widely syndicated column. She wrote several scathing books about the political career of George W. Bush.

American political satirist (born Aug. 30, 1944 , Monterey, Calif.—died Jan. 31, 2007 , Austin, Texas) wrote a newspaper column from a staunchly liberal point of view that mercilessly and humorously skewered politicians in both her home state of Texas and the federal government. Ivins began her career in 1967 as a reporter for the Minneapolis (Minn.) Tribune. In 1970 she became editor of the liberal biweekly magazine the Texas Observer, and it was there that she developed her distinctive style. Ivins worked (1976–82) for the New York Times before spending 10 years with the Dallas Times Herald. She then wrote her column for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.Ivins came to national prominence with the rise to national politics of Texas politician George W. Bush, and her column was widely syndicated. She wrote six books, including, with Lou Dubose, Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush (2000) and Bushwhacked (2003).

In 1999, Ivins was diagnosed with stage III inflammatory breast cancer. The cancer recurred in 2003 and again in late 2005. In January 2006 she reported that she was again undergoing chemotherapy. In December 2006 she took leave from her column to again undergo treatment. She wrote two columns in January 2007, but returned to the hospital on the 26th for further treatment. Ivins died at her Austin, Texas home in hospice care on January 31, 2007, at age 62.

After her death, George W. Bush, a frequent target of her barbs, said in a statement, “I respected her convictions, her passionate belief in the power of words. She fought her illness with that same passion. Her quick wit and commitment will be missed.

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