Color and Emotion

It's time for another colorful blog post!

When we talk about color, what we are actually perceiving as color is the result of light being reflected off of objects into our eyes. Every object absorbs and reflects different parts of the light spectrum, but without light, there would be no such thing as the perception of color. The visible light spectrum is an additive color system, where combining colors, (adding colors to other colors), results in an overall lighter color; combining all colors in an additive color system will produce white light. So basically, when we see a green apple, what is actually happening is that the apple is absorbing the red rays of light and reflecting the blue and yellow rays into our eyes; when you add blue and yellow light together, the result is green light, so we would see a green apple.

Not only are different colors made up of different combinations of light—or pigments for the subtractive color system—they also affect human emotions differently. “Warm” colors refer to yellows, oranges and reds, while “cool” colors refer to greens, blues, and violets. Red is a color that is powerful for our emotions since it has the ability to inspire passion and romantic love, while at the same time being the color of blood, and thus being synonymous with danger and violence. Using colors like maroon and black, Mark Rothko created a painting intending to ruin the appetites of people eating at The Four Seasons in New York City; he used those colors because they are dark, ominous, unappetizing, and unpleasant to look at. The main component that gives color its meaning is context, however, because as stated before, a color can have multiple connotations: a red heart-shaped box of chocolate inspires passion while the sight of red blood conjures fear in the viewer’s mind.

Beau Lotto’s research showing that people of different ages, gender, and status, perceive color differently was very surprising to me because I always thought that everyone sees color the way that I do. His experiments prove that color is created in the mind of the viewer, however, and is shaped by that person’s experiences, language, and emotion. I never thought of color as an illusion though; something that is actually malleable and subjective. I knew that some people are color blind and some can see color, but for those who can see perfectly well, I never thought that there would be a difference in perceived color.

I also thought it was interesting how Beau Lotto proved that based on how a person feels at the moment that they see a color, they will perceive that color differently, depending on their emotion. This research proves that there is a strong connection between emotion and color, and it also makes a lot of sense to me because of my life experience: during times of being sad or even depressed, it was as if all of the color had been drained from the world around me. The opposite is true as well: being in love heightens my perception of color to where everything I see seems to sparkle slightly. The colors around me in either of my emotional states did not change, but since my emotions were drastically different at different emotional times, my experience of color was also drastically different. Being loved is an empowering feeling—and being rejected is a very powerless feeling—which explains why my perception of color changed based on my emotional state, just like Lotto’s spot experiment showed.

Until next time!

References

McGraw-Hill Higher Education. (2006-2019). My Art Studio.  Retrieved from http://www.mhhe.com/ArtStudio/1/4/1/1.html

The Arts Council of England. (1997). Oil On Canvas.  Retrieved from https://digital.films.com/p_ViewPlaylist.aspx?AssignmentId=RJ8PAN

BBC. (2011) Do You See What I See? The Science of Color Perception. Retrieved from https://fodbeta-infobase-com.proxy.buffalostate.edu/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=48257