Creating a book can be a long and winding process. I often found myself venturing off of the main path onto side trails filled with colourful tidbits to learn. Anything that didn’t fit with the flow of the book has been carefully tucked into notes that will eventually be turned into blogs and other kinds of colour lessons. What did make it into the book is the most important material to help people learn the fundamentals about how we experience colour.
One of my goals is to change how children are taught about colour. This goal has been driving me for years. Everyone deserves to learn the most accurate information, but when we offer this information to kids, it will prevent them from having to go through the process of unlearning and relearning as they get older.
‘Just Swap It: Kinder Colour Stories’ includes many of the colour lessons kids are taught, why they don’t make sense, and what should be taught so they can have a clear understanding about playing with colour. Experimentation and open creative play is also important. It is better to let people be lead by the creative process rather than imposing too many instructions and rules. I am not advocating for new colour rules. It is helpful though to provide guidelines and information to explain what is happening when we play with colour.
As an artist who has been painting for over 30 years, I am also motivated to help other artists understand colour. It was a huge realization when I saw magenta and cyan properly. They had always been there but the communication about them was fuzzy at best. No one ever told me how important they were for an artist. My paintings of sunsets and flowers finally got the colours they deserved. I want everyone to have as many colours to play with as possible.
I am also drawn to observing how colour is integrated into culture stories. It is used so frequently, that colour and culture go hand in hand. As someone who identifies as a woman, I have felt the impact of the colour pink, for example. When I was young, I was always told pink is a softer, lighter version of red. It is sweet and delicate. As I grew up, I saw the bold vivid loud pink be called pink. I needed to understand more about pink. After creating a book about colour it became obvious how often red was getting credit for the work pink was doing. Pink paint and yellow paint make red paint. Pink is powerful.
We can decide what stories make the most sense and are most helpful. I am hopeful there are many critical thinkers out there who want to work with colour to create kind and caring stories. Stories that celebrate our diversity and reduce the amount of harm many humans are causing. We can heal, grow, and thrive.