Mount Fuji is light blue in summer, white and light blue in winter.
In my latest Fuji painting, I used neither. Still, you know it’s Fuji.
Turns out Fuji’s identity was in its shape more than its color.
But when I painted a crow, it didn’t work. I made the body white, and no matter how crow-shaped it was, it didn’t look like a crow.
A crow’s identity was its black.
Identity lives in color for some things, in shape for others.
You only find out by painting it.
Our own identity may be made of our appearance, shape, and color. But the atmosphere that makes us who we are is shaped by what’s around us, too. Building your own space helps build your identity. One painting in a room changes how the space feels, and the person in it changes too.
Once, I hand-delivered a large painting to a customer’s home. They had planned to hang it in the living room, but ended up choosing the bedroom. It’s the first color they see when they go to sleep and when they wake up. Starting and ending the day with a color you love keeps your mood good. The colors that catch our eye every day, without our noticing, slowly make us who we are.
Later, they called me and said, “I’m so happy I get to see it every day.”
What surrounds you shapes your identity.
How about yours? What’s around you?