I love playing with rainbows. My husband taught me the acronym ROY G BIV. It stands for the colors of the rainbow: read, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. (Fun fact: it was Isaac Newton who decided we should divide the spectrum into seven colors.) I use that acronym in several ways.

I remember it when I paint. There are days when I decide I want to paint a rainbow. ROY helps me make sure to use all the color groups. (Purists would tell you I only need red, yellow and blue on my pallet, but I always start with more premixed colors.)

When I am out in the world, it’s fun to find a rainbow. I remember one fun day when my daughter and I visited a mall and window shopped for the colors of the rainbow.

It’s fun for me to think and learn about color. The rods in our eyes collect the light that bounces off objects. That’s just the beginning of the mechanics of color biology.. Why was Nancy Reagan’s power suit red? It’s part of the psychology of color (British/American psychology, anyway). Is orange orange all over the world? No it’s not. Considering color from a linguistic point of view is fascinating. There is always more to learn.

Limiting yourself to black-and-white seems very refined to me. Ansell Adams photographs are pure and full of truth. But give me Leonid Afremov paintings any day.

Color makes my heart sing.

What makes your heart sing?