Inspiration Fridays! What are your favorite opposites?
What are your favorite opposites?
Last night, the wind grew fingers and tried to pull our metal roof off the rafters. Rain clawed at the windows, and the cold looked desperately for a way in.
“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” – W.B. Yeats
Outside, the normally colorful hillside across the valley had a new white coat and seasonally gray skirt. I watched her with a hot cup of tea in hand, as she disappeared into the storm.
I grabbed some wood outback and was drenched by the time I got back to the house. It was our first fire of the year. With help from the gas assist, the flames took quickly devouring the punky wood and casting a warm, flickering glow across the living room floor. Crouching with my face dangerously close to the hearth, I began to get some feeling back in my fingers. The young fire’s brilliant eyes stared back, like something alive, something primal.
Icy grays turned to black and the fury of the storm drifted out of focus. Inside, my eyes were dancing. Hypnotized by the deep green-blue base of the flames, I watched the vibrant yellows and oranges licking at the air.
Fireside – Gabriel Mark Lipper
In art, we often talk about how color evokes emotion, but here it was playing itself out in real life. As the fire pushed back the cold, it reframed it. The blackness outside gave the warm fire’s glow a heightened sense of weight and brilliance. Magical contrast.
In our bid to avoid, uncertainty, discomfort, or even a few gray days, we can inadvertently give up so much more. We clip our own wings because flying could prove difficult or dangerous. Creativity works the same way. Every brushstroke, every choice of color, is a balance between creating tension and maintaining harmony, light and dark, fire, rain, and risk.
Color is never just about what comes in the tube. It’s the interplay of opposites. Warm against cool, bold against soft. When we lean into these contrasts, whether in art or in life, we create the potential for something new and alive.