Do you see the days of the week in colors? Do you hear notes of music and assign a smell to each note or series of notes? Or hear raindrops and see cubes of water falling from the sky?
Do you give the months of the year sounds? Do you give words flavors? Like the word “sacrifice” tastes like licorice? Do you blur the senses?
If any of this is true for you, there is a name for this: It is called synesthesia. And the people who enjoy this kind of sensory life are called synaesthetes, sometimes spelled synesthetes. (without the a)
I, personally, am a synaesthete and according to numerous articles written about this condition, most of us are artists and female. I see January as the color white. February as a dark red. When Friday rolls around, there is the color bright green in my mind. Saturdays, tan. July a bright light green, etc. Number three is pink. New York is gray. Detroit, purple.
And some synaesthetes don’t like colored fonts because they see black fonts in color anyway. Perhaps the shape of the serif in the letter or the boldness of the font may conjure up a color. I suffer from this form of synaesthesia as well.
I really had not thought about this as something special (I thought everyone mixed senses up this way), until the “condition” was brought to light and articles were written about it. Then I started asking around and I was surprised at how many people do not experience this. Do you?
Hollis Hildebrand-Mills 
Can’t say that I do, must be why I am artistically challenged!
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Marjie, you are definitely creative. How you express it can take many forms. You could not have worked at Piedmont for that long without being creative!
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I took this photograph!
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I don’t have synesthesia and often feel deprived! Patricia Albers biography of Joan Mitchell talks a great deal about Mitchell’s synthesia.
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Thanks for your reply. I did not know Joan Mitchell had synaesthesia. I will look into it!!! I must have a mild “case.” In any event, it seems to me that making art would not be hindered by this “condition.” Because of the use of that side of the brain! ( right)
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Very interested to read you post – I also have synaesthesia and wrote about it a while ago here:
http://charactersfromthekitchen.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/today-is-blue-tomorrow-is-yellow-but-maths-is-always-a-mystery/
Hope you find it interesting!
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Very interesting, Hollis! I don’t think of days of the week in terms of colors, but I do sometimes think of musical notes and chords as having colors, and have for many years. Some of my choices may seem trite, such as considering B to be blue, or G as green. But they’re not really choices. That’s just what they are to me, the same as grass is green and the sky is blue. (So the grass has one sharp, while the sky has two!)
Like B, D is also blue. A is red. E is yellow. F is brown. Bb is black. Eb is greenish yellow. Ab is maroon. F# and C# are indeterminate in color for some reason. C is white (yes, I’m a piano player).
The order in which I’m listing these is random, although I do also love the mathematical order of musical notes and chords in the Western 12-tone system. The flat keys progress in 4ths: F, Bb, Eb, and so on; while the sharp keys proceed in 5ths: G, D, A, etc. That’s just the beginning.
I wonder if people also think of rhythms as having colors — is 3/4 yellow and 5/4 brown? Or is a dotted quarter note a certain color, or smell, or taste? (No fair dropping acid before deciding!)
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Tom, sorry I am late with this, but…..yes I think you must be a synaesthete like Jenny Pellet and me. (And millions of others) I see color as something that takes over a situation or a day, month or year as I described above. Because I am an artist. Others see words when someone speaks. I also don’t think you have to be a visual artist to see color as a force. Look at you! And Jenny also sees color in days, numbers etc. and she is a writer. It is fascinating isn’t it?
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