Get your Blue on, a beautiful blue building in Hoi An, Vietnam, December 2008, photos © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
Blue is one of my favorite colors. Calm, reflective. Blue is the color I painted my writing room. Blue (like green) reminds me of nature—the heavens and the seas.
(Some languages don’t differentiate between blue and green. In Vietnamese, for example, the word for both tree and sky is the same—xanh.)
In the ancient city of Hoi An, Vietnam, I saw shades of blue everywhere. There was the periwinkle blue of a wall that when I stopped in front of it to wait for traffic, held me in its depth. There was the bright blue-green interior of the restaurant where we ate that soothed, like turquoise water against white sand, in an almost illogical way (being as how the waves in the nearby South China Sea churned gray and the blue-green walls jolted my senses).
Blue doors, blue walls, blue windows. Blue against cheerful yellows and oranges. Blue against blue.
Blue on blue, heartache on heartache.
Something about Hoi An reminded me of towns I’ve been before. I think of Havana, Cuba, or Tonalá, México. People who use such bright color—color that fades over time and becomes all the more profound (as if it has seeped into the skin)—are vibrant people, I think. They are creators, artists, philosophers.
If you see a tree as blue, then make it blue.
Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.
Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. In heraldry, blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity.
Light blue is associated with health, healing, tranquility, understanding, and softness. Dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.
~from Color Wheel Pro
During the holidays I often feel blue. I have a friend who says it’s normal to be sad during Christmas; the Christmases of one’s adulthood will never measure up to those of one’s youth. Never the same sense of anticipation. Never the same thrill.
Many a holiday season I feel lethargic, overwhelmed by the thought of all things I could and should be doing. Cards, decorations, baking. I would love to make my own wreath this year, the kind that Martha Stewart and all those so-called Women’s magazines make seem so simple and so fulfilling.
I once saw a wreath in shades of cornflower blue in Taos. That would be pretty. Little berries. Not blueberries, but blue berries. For once, a wreath that shows my inside out.
Years ago I would have pushed myself to do it all. I even used to stamp my own Christmas wrapping paper with homemade potato cut stamps. BK. Before Kids.
The past several years I’ve taken the weight of those particular accomplishments off my shoulders. I doubt I’ll get out my cards this season, and while I feel a pang of guilt over the whole thing (and the concern that those who send me cards will eventually cross me off their lists), I also tell myself that it is OK. After all, I just came back from a trip abroad. Although, I don’t need an excuse, do I?
In New Mexico, as in other places, a blue window frame, door frame, or portal keeps evil spirits from entering a dwelling. The color is associated with Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary (her mantle is blue) and the moradas of the Penitentes.
The turquoise stone, important in many native cultures and Buddhism, is believed to assure safe journey. When worn in the ear, turquoise is said prevent reincarnation as a donkey, and when found, it brings good luck. (I’ll have to tell my girls, as they regularly pan for and discover turquoise in the Rio Grande.)
In some cultures, the blue bead wards off the evil eye. The blue bead can be seen hanging from a rear view mirror, around one’s neck, or like mistletoe in the doorway.
I’ll have a blue Christmas without you.
Blue signifieth divine contemplation. In moral virtues, it signifieth godliness of conversation, and is the colour of air, attributed to celestial persons, whose contemplations have been about divine things…
~Sylvanus Morgan, 1661
I beseech you, Blessed Medicine Guru,
Whose sky-colored, holy body of lapis lazuli
Signifies omniscient wisdom and compassion
As vast as limitless space,
Please grant me your blessings.
~from the Medicine Tantra
Today it snowed almost all day. A white out—low clouds and flurries that finally started to stick by dark. Not a speck of blue to be found, save for the small dot growing (ever so slowly, like ancient moss) inside my heart.
redravine.wordpress.com 
Fab post. Growing up, blue was my favourite colour….now it’s reds and oranges but I still love blue. Love the photos.
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I love the post and the juxtaposition of the Blue of Hanoi and the blue of the Christmas season. Funny how we chose such a calming color to express the depression on feels at times. Hum….
I do remember one year when Mom decorated the Christmas tree with all blue lights and covered it with angel hair. I am not sure what it did to bring a calming sense to a Christmas morning where 6 kids anxiously waited to open their presents but it sure looked cool at night with the room lights off and the glow of the blue Christmas tree. QM could probably expound on this tree because it is a memory we find ourselves drawn to this time of the year.
We painted our living room a rich dark blue and the adjoining dining room an earthy medium green. Those two rooms are my some of my favorites because of their rich colors.
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R3, my godparents, who lived down the road from us on our old street, always had blue lights on a tree dripping with icicles. I loved the blue, and it was always a Blue Spruce tree, fat and bushy.
Our trees were always pinon, with room for ornaments in the space between the branches. And Dad always used multi-colored lights.
There was something special about the all-blue trees. The way they turned everything a blue with a slight green tint, the way you might expect TVs to glow except TVs had much more white light in them.
For our great room, being as how it was a new house and I could decorate from scratch, I choose an old-fashioned blue and a sage green mix. I never would have expected to pick those colors. I was leaning toward mustards and reds when I started, but things change. Jo, I even wondered how I might bring in oranges, as oranges were big in the mid-century (and the house is a mid-century modern).
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ybonesy, reflective post. I took my time reading it. It’s the kind of piece that reads like a slow walk. Love how you integrated all the different ways people and cultures look at the color blue. The photographs are wonderful, too, capturing what you are writing and reflecting on. If I recall correctly, there is a bright blue in one of the photographs of Frida Kahlo’s house (Casa Azul) in Laura’s Guest piece from last year [See Dreaming Of Frida Kahlo (LINK)]
You know what’s interesting is that in some cultures, red doors are for Prosperity. And you mention the blue doors in New Mexico for Protection. You see that color blue a lot driving through New Mexico. I also think it’s true what Gauguin said — paint what you see. A lot of painters will use non-realistic colors when they paint landscapes because that’s what they feel when they paint. Natalie paintings are like that, too — bright, bold colors.
I think the blues are common this time of year. And it’s a time of year when therapy visits tend to go up for depression and family issues that people experience. I tend to vacillate between the joy of gratitude and giving and the blues of remembering past Christmases, like you mention. It’s a strange time that way.
Oh, one more thing — that Bobby Vinton song, Blue On Blue, I used to love it. I can’t remember what grade I was in when it came out but it was grade school. It reminds me of a grade school crush. 8)
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R3, I do remember well the Christmas Mom decorated in all blues. She loves the color blue and always has. That year in particular, there were blue lights everywhere, including on the tree. The living room walls were blue. And I also think it’s the year she added the “cotton candy” batting or what’s that stuff called? Anyway, it was a layer of that spidery like material over the lights. I’ll always remember that Christmas.
BTW, one of my favorite Christmases was after we first moved up to Pennsylvania from Georgia. I discovered I loved winter and it snowed that Christmas. We also had a woodburning fireplace and at that time we were using it. I used to love sitting by the fire with just the tree lights on.
In fact, there were a few Christmases in that time period that I really enjoyed. I think on one of them, I got a guitar. I was so surprised. Lots of memories.
ybonesy, the blue and sage mix sounds like a great mix. You had just moved into your new home when I saw it. I bet it’s changed a lot since then.
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Yeah, QM, we didn’t have much furniture then. It’s still a bit sparse, but at least we have paintings up now and I added some of the blue things. I think we might have still had the mustard couch that I got reupholstered.
The blue Christmas sounds lovely, QM. Nothing like snow on Christmas day or thereabouts, plus the wood-burning stove. And lights out. I can just picture the spidery cotton batting.
Our godparents used oodles of icicles, so much that you could barely see the tree or the ornaments, which were mostly blue bulbs.
I also like outdoor trees lit up all in one color. Jim has one little bush all in a sort of pink light. It’s cute.
QM, yes, Casa Azul. I’ve seen brightly colored homes—blues, yellows, oranges, pinks, greens—in much of Latin America, but especially Mexico. Also in the south valley here in Albuquerque. I remember homes that were painted bright colors that eventually faded from the sun. I like that. I always smile when I see a brightly painted house. It might look kind of garish to some eyes, but not mine. (Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.)
BTW, QM, click on the Gauguin link and you’ll see he practiced what he preached.
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Oh, yb, that Gauguin painting is amazing. I love it. You can sure learn a lot from the masters. BTW, I love the bright colors in doors, window frames, and homes that I see in New Mexico. You just don’t see that in Minnesota (well, rarely) except in the homes of some who have most often moved from other cultures. I’m always so struck when I see anything that bright here.
One of Liz’s favorite colors is kind of a mix of the two blues in your first photograph. It’s a bright blue that kind of matches her eyes. She looks wonderful in it. This year she wanted to put all blue solar lights on the Christmas tree we have growing in our front yard. It was a baby when she planted it but is now over our heads. The lights were kind of prohibitive in costs — at least at full price. We are looking for a sale. 8)
Also, our deck is the color of the light blue in your photograph. It’s cheery to us. Next year we plan to finish painting the house, using another shade of blue for the window trim, and a warm white for the house.
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Yeah, I really liked that Gauguin painting, too. The skinny wavering tree trunks. Blue. Cool.
It is cool to see the bright blue (purpley blue—is that a periwinkle or a cornflower or maybe something in between, but deep) on the window frames and portals around NM. Especially in the north valley or northern NM. It goes so well, just from a pure aesthetic perspective, against the earth colors of adobe. The shades of brown. And yellow or orange, too. Nice contrast.
I’ve seen the slate blue, is that what you would call it?, of the doors in the top photo. That’s the color of your deck, yes? My in-laws painted their wood trim on their old house that color. And the gates and such. I liked it. Nice contrast, too, against earth colors.
Your color scheme sounds nice. Two shades of blue and the warm white.
Oh, our front is painted brown now, but underneath I can see more of a turquoise color. Interesting. Would be nice to strip; don’t care much for the brown. Would prefer just the natural wood with a good finish, but it’d be fun to see what paint colors there were in the past.
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Yeah, I like that he calls it — Blue Tree Trunks Arles. Arles always reminds me of Van Gogh. Our deck is more the color of the lighter blue around the text at the top of your photo. It might be a tad darker. And the trim for the windows next year, we are thinking of a color kind of similar in tone to the trim around the door in your photograph but quite a bit darker. I’ll keep you posted. Yeah, I think that’s a kind of slate blue — blue and gray mixed.
Some friends of ours live in an architected home, probably the one they will live in for the rest of their time in Minnesota. Anyway, they are in the process of repainting their living room. And an interior designer recommended a shade of gray for certain parts of the kitchen. One of our friends is a graphic designer and usually chooses her own colors. But this time, she wanted to see how it was to use someone else’s recommendations. I haven’t seen it yet but will be there for Solstice this weekend. I can’t wait to see how the gray panned out.
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yb, this is a wonderful post! Love all of the photos & especially the post itself. Though I do not tend to decorate in blue, I much prefer more earthy tones of green & orangeish kinda reds. I chose a color for our home that is brick red. Orange is my favorite color, however, when we moved into our house, which was built on the 70’s, the kitchen countertop was a bright orange & I knew I couldn’t live with it. It was one of the first things that had to go. So interesting to read about the color blue in different cultures. I can’t wait to share this post with Brant. For him, blue is where it’s at!
I am so envious of your travel to Viet Nam! Thanks for sharing! D
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An amazing essay on blue. The cultural aspects really add a spark to the writing. I’ve always thought I liked blue, but reflecting on our home decorating, we haven’t had a room with any blue since my youngest daughter was 10. The two girls had a blue bedroom with light blue carpeting, but following an unfortunate incident with fingers getting caught in the hinge of a trundle bed, we had to re-decorate. (Nothing serious – the hand surgeon did a fine job – but it was an exciting night!)
As for blue Christmases, our Christmas this year will be on the white side. And I actually like Christmas a lot more now than I did when I was a kid, so I can’t blame feeling blue on that. Plus all three kids will be home, and so that is an event in itself. Once I learned–long ago–to reduce expectations, and only do the Christmas stuff that is joyful, my Holidays went much smoother. So we only do a little baking, a little decorating, only a few letters, a few presents. Now it is all about family. And that’s a good thing to celebrate.
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yb, lovely photos, and an entertaining, well-written, reflective essay about blue. The trip to Vietnam has enriched your life to no end, it seems. Interesting, how their word for blue/green blends.
Have you been to La Casa Azul, Frida Kahlo’s house? I love the cobalt blue that startles and absorbs the eyesight.
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I have not been to Casa Azul, Christine, although I read about it when Laura Stokes, a good friend of mine, went for Kahlo’s 100th Birthday celebration. (That’s the link that QM provided in a comment above.) I would love to go some day. Also love how you describe it: the cobalt blue that startles and absorbs the eyesight.
Bo, have been meaning to get back to you about your description of Christmas. I have to say, what you write about reducing expectations and having it be about family—this sounds so sane and joyful. How wonderful that all three kids will be with you and Mr. Bo. What a treat! Also, the hand surgeon mention is intriguing, but my faint-at-sight-of-blood tendency prevents me from digging into all the details of that little tidbit. 8)
diddy, you and Em. She loves orange, too. I would have loved to see the bright orange countertops of your 1970s home. Is it a ranch style house? We had bright orange shag carpeting in our old ranch style house. The orange was, as I recall, in the living room and dining room (because it was more formal???) whereas the green shag was in the den. Sounds atrocious now, but I mean, we thought it was the coolest thing back then. I can remember walking barefoot and just raking that shag carpeting with my toes. Deeee-luxe!
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