“What a horrible thing yellow is.” — Edgar Degas
How fortunate for the great artist that he spent his springs in France instead of metro Atlanta.
As happens each spring, our landscape is encrusted in a shellac of bright yellow pollen. It covers everything: streets, cars, buildings, even a few slow-moving people.
As our eyes water and our sinuses clog, we recognize it as the messenger of our seasonal respiratory misery.
But what about the effect of the color itself? Are there consequences to being immersed for weeks in a bright but eerie environment of fluorescent chartreuse?
Like the color itself, it seems, the answer is a mixed message.
Yellow, the experts say, is bright, cheery, warm.
It suggests sunshine, fun, happiness, love and optimism. Because of its spot on the visible light spectrum — a wavelength of about 570 nanometers, for those scoring at home — it’s one of the colors of the rainbow. And what’s more cheery than a rainbow?
That is on the one hand. On the other, yellow connotes caution, cowardice, aging and illness. While it is one of the three primary colors, and the most visible on the color spectrum, yellow is also the most fatiguing to the eye because it reflects so much light.
According to the psychology experts at About.com, yellow can increase your metabolism, so maybe you can pack in a few more calories right now.
But yellow can also spur frustration and anger, they say, citing reports that adults are more likely to lose their tempers and babies to bawl more in yellow rooms.
So perhaps the bottom line of living this lemon-colored existence is confusion. You want to eat more but you also want to cry more. You’re pepped up yet feeling afraid. Thinking rainbows and lollipops but also ready to slug someone.
Need relief? Perhaps you should take Degas’ advice, the same advice he gave all those crazy impressionist painters out wandering the countryside looking for inspiration in haystacks and water lilies.
What’s the French for: Try staying indoors, knuckleheads?
About the Author
