I recently saw an article (that will go nameless to protect the guilty) which claimed that since Central Americans tended to like bright colors while those in North America on the average prefer muted colors, people living in the north were “fearful of bright colors.”

Hello?

Let me be clear: I’ve spent most of my life in North America, and I can’t remember when I last saw a grown man running in fear from a bright color.

That said, I’m dubious of any suggestion that this or that culture is superior because it has a taste for a certain color, food, or style of dress — remembering that the Greeks and Romans, while wearing short skirts and sandals, conquered the known world.

There’s also the problem of which perspective on things is correct. What makes the pro-bright color crowd right? One might just as easily argue that the Northeners are right. The argument might be that those preferring muted colors have refined tastes, knowing the difference between subtle shades and garish hues.

And the more narrow among this league of muted color lovers might just as easily claim that their southern cousins must be fearful of muted colors?

Don’t get me wrong.

Even though I’m one of those allegedly fearful Northerners, I like bright colors (as anyone who has seen my artwork knows).

But I’d never be silly enough to suggest those who differ from my views are “fearful of color.” Come on now, isn’t that just a tad ridiculous?

How about, rather than having to claim that either A) Bright colors are superior or B) Muted colors are best, we instead go with C) All colors are fine? Why claim one choice is right and the other, wrong? Or that those who fail to choose whatever we deem superior are “fearful”?

I’ll go out on a limb here and suggest that it’s just plain crazy to claim one or another color is chosen only by the brave and avoided by the fearful.

Such a suggestion is like arguing that because a person dislikes celery, they must be fearful of that vegetable.

Doesn’t it make more sense just to believe they don’t have a taste for celery.

Or, perhaps, bright colors.

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When not cowering at the sight of vegetables, Duncan Long is a freelance magazine and book illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, ISFiC Press, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his book illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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