artificial color

is mere letters or dipthongs that must be decoded. Natural colors declare themselves openly, forming a language of words and phrases.

Artificial colors have to be “decoded.” Natural colors declare themselves openly. There is no green in nature without a little yellow and red in it, without a dark touch of maroon, a gleam of purple, a soft shade of gold, a hint of violet. As clear and simple as they look, colors in nature actually form a language of words and phrases, whereas artificial colors are mostly colored letters of the alphabet or luminous diphthongs. The on- 2 ly thing that ever combines them and brings them to life is the human body, which can form syllables out of them but never quite words, let alone simple phrases. To decode artificial colors we have to string them out like beads in a necklace, match their tints, and try to fit their nuances together. Not even the most gorgeous fabrics can speak to our eyes in the living tongue of the glimpses of deep foliage we catch in the woods, the colors inscribed by the sun on the parchment of things.

artificial color, n.All

artificial color