“Afloat” Image. Ceres Gallery. New York. Solo Show.

The woman in “full color” is being wooed by the Black and White man. He is blowing up a balloon for her. She looks happy, but not overly so. And he looks like someone from another era. After all, he is in Black and White.

The colors in this collage are pretty bad. Even with the addition of black and white, which sometimes can elevate a color-challenged piece. But as I said, the man is not making the “in color” woman that happy.

I need to talk about this. This could be considered a rant. But I don’t care. In fact, maybe the last thirteen of these collages in “Blog As Gallery” will be rants.

This is a rant about people enjoying the names of colors, rather than looking at the colors by themselves and letting that be enough.

Like someone will say “Sea Foam Green.” That’s an old one. Or they will say their walls are “Biscuit.” and they act so smug as if the name of the color dignifies it. Or augments it. (Augment: one of my favorite words.) “Chocolate Brown.” Or “Cotton Candy” Or “Heather.” Come on now, does anyone over here really know what heather looks like? Or “Wine” and “Cranberry.” (Always in Autumn, just in time for Thanksgiving) These people love saying the words. “Ecru”, “Eggnog.” ”Eggplant!” Never mind, it does not even remotely look like the color of an eggplant! And honestly, if it weren’t around Christmastime, the true color of “Eggnog” would make people want to barf!

There is actually a color for walls called “Decorator’s White” (I wonder who thought that one up) I mixed my own color for our ceilings and the paint store named it “Hollis Green.” Not the Hollis Green on the TV Show “Big Love”, but naming the color I wanted, which was not even green. “Hollis Green” was turquoise!

Obviously, this is a source of great irritation for me. I guess because I love color; it does not need a name to be enjoyed. In fact, don’t get me started on the naming of clothing like “Boyfriend Jeans.”