WORKSHOP: Color, Language & Embroidery

Wednesday, April 15, 2020 6pm – Thursday, April 16 9pm

At 516 ARTS
Fee: $60/$50 members, Register: 505-242-1445 or mackensie@516arts.org

Colors are such fundamental aspects of our world that it’s hard to imagine not having names for them, however the number of words for colors varies widely by language and for many decades there were no words in English describing basic colors we know today. Orange, for example, wasn’t a word until 200 years after the citrus fruit arrived in Europe. Before that, the color was called “yellow-red” referring to the two colors that create orange when mixed. Ancient languages, including Greek, Chinese, Hebrew, and Japanese, didn’t have a word for blue. In Russian, there are two distinct words describing light blue (goluboy) and dark blue (siniy). These names don’t simply reflect what we see, but also influence our perception. How do we build phrases imbued with color? Why do we make certain sensory or emotional connections with certain colors, like the sayings “out of the blue” or “green with envy”?

We will begin the workshop by discussing color and language in order to create a list of phrases, sentences, titles that relate to the English names of colors (i.e. Blue Velvet, Mellow Yellow, Red sky at night shepherds delight). Participants will select a group of phrases related with blue, red and yellow to embroider and upon completion, they will become part of the exhibition.

Materials provided. Space is limited.