Fifty Shades of Green

Welcome To Cora’s Corner, where every month I am going to help you with

 

your artwork issues. I thought in honor of St. Patrick’s Day and the coming Spring we would discuss the color Green. Here are some fun facts. This should help you choose the green you use wisely.

 Nature, vivacity, and life

Green is the color most commonly associated in Europe and the U.S. with nature, vivacity and life. It is the color of many environmental organizations, such as Greenpeace. Many cities have designated a garden or park as a green space, and use green trash bins and containers. A green cross is commonly used to designate pharmacies in Europe. In China, green is associated with the east, with sunrise, and with life and growth. In Thailand, the color green is consider auspicious for those born on a Wednesday day (light green for those born at night).

Springtime, freshness, and hope
Green is the color most commonly springtime, freshness, and hope, like the renewal of flowers and plants after the winter season.. Green is often used to symbolize rebirth and renewal and immortality. In Ancient Egypt; the god Osiris, king of the underworld, was depicted as green-skinned.

Youth and inexperience
Green the color most commonly associated in Europe and the U.S. with youth. It also often is used to describe anyone young, inexperienced, probably by the analogy to immature and unripe fruit. Examples include green cheese, a term for a fresh, unaged cheese, and greenhorn, an inexperienced person.

Calm, tolerance, and the agreeable
Surveys also show that green is the color most associated with the calm, the agreeable, and tolerance. Red is associated with heat, blue with cold, and green with an agreeable temperature. Red is associated with dry, blue with wet, and green, in the middle, with dampness. Red is the most active color, blue the most passive; green, in the middle, is the color of neutrality and calm. Blue and green together symbolize harmony and balance.

Jealousy and envy
Green is often associated with jealousy and envy. The expression “green-eyed monster” was first used by William Shakespeare in Othello: “it is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.” Shakespeare also used it in the Merchant of Venice, speaking of “green-eyed jealousy.”

Love and sexuality
Green used in stories of the medieval period sometimes represented love and the base, natural desires of man. It was the color of the serpent in the Garden of Eden who caused the downfall of Adam and Eve. However, for the troubadours, green was the color of growing love, and light green clothing was reserved for young women who were not yet married.
In Persian and Sudanese poetry, dark-skinned women, called “green” women, were considered erotic. The Chinese term for cuckold is “to wear a green hat.” This was because in ancient China, prostitutes were called “the family of the green lantern” and a prostitute’s family would wear a green headscarf.

Fairies, dragons, monsters, and devils
In legends, folk tales and films, fairies, dragons, monsters, and the devil are often shown as green. In the Middle Ages, the devil was usually shown as either red, black or green. Dragons were usually green, because they had the heads, claws and tails of reptiles. Modern Chinese dragons are also often green, but unlike European dragons, they are benevolent; Chinese dragons traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, hurricane, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck. The Emperor of China usually used the dragon as a symbol of his imperial power and strength. The dragon dance is a popular feature of Chinese festivals. In Irish folklore and English folklore, the color was sometimes was associated with witchcraft, and with faeries and spirits. The type of Irish fairy known a leprechaun is commonly portrayed wearing a green suit, though before 20th century he was usually described as wearing a red suit.
In the theater and in films, green was often connected with horror or ghost stories, and with corpses. The earliest films of Frankenstein were in black and white, but in the poster for the 1935 version The Bride of Frankenstein, the monster had a green face. Actor Bela Lugosi wore green-hued makeup for the role of Dracula in the 1927–1928 Broadway stage production.

Poison, sickness, and misfortune
Like other common colors, green has several completely opposite associations. While it is the color most associated with good health, it is also the color most often associated with toxicity and poison. There was a solid foundation for this association; in the nineteenth century several popular paints and pigments, notably verdigris, vert de Schweinfurt and vert de Paris, were highly toxic, containing copper or arsenic. A green tinge in the skin is sometimes associated with nausea and sickness. The expression ‘green at the gills’ means appearing sick. The color, when combined with gold, is sometimes seen as representing the fading of youth. In some Far East cultures the color green is used as a symbol of sickness and/or nausea.

Safety and permission
Green can communicate safety to proceed, as in traffic lights. Green and red were standardized as the colors of international railroad signals in the 19th century. The first traffic light, using green and red gas lamps, was erected in 1868 in front of the Houses of Parliament in London. In 1912, the first modern electric traffic lights were put up in Salt Lake City, Utah. Red was chosen largely because of its high visibility, and its association with danger, while green was chosen largely because it could not be mistaken for red. Today green lights universally signal that a system is turned on and working as it should. In many video games, green signifies both health and completed objectives, opposite red.

Social status, prosperity and the dollar
Green is sometimes associated with status and prosperity. From the Middle Ages to the 19th century it was often worn by bankers, merchants country gentlemen and others who were wealthy but not members of the nobility. The benches in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, where the landed gentry sat, are colored green.
In the United States green was connected with the dollar bill. Since 1861, the reverse side of the dollar bill has been green. Green was originally chosen because it deterred counterfeiters, who tried to use early camera equipment to duplicate banknotes. Also, since the banknotes were thin, the green on the back did not show through and muddle the pictures on the front of the banknote. Green continues to be used because the public now associates it with a strong and stable currency.
One of the more notable uses of this meaning is found in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In this story is the Emerald City, where everyone wears tinted glasses which make everything look green. According to the populist interpretation of the story, the city’s color is used by the author, L. Frank Baum, to illustrate the financial system of America in his day, as he lived in a time when America was debating the use of paper money versus gold.

Here’s a name of few greens commonly used.
Artichoke, Asparagus, Avocado, Dark green, Fern green, Forest green,
Jungle green, Laurel green, Light green, Mantis, Moss green, Dark moss green
Myrtle green, Mint green, Pine green, Sap green, Shamrock green (Irish green)
Tea green, Teal, Olive, Army green, Bottle green (Bangladesh green),
Bright green, Brunswick green, Castleton green, Celadon green,
Dartmouth green, Emerald, Feldgrau, Yellow-green, Harlequin, Hunter green,
India green, Jade, Kelly green, Malachite, Midnight green, Neon green,
Sea green. Have fun choosing yours to use this month.

Until next month.
Cora Kromer
cora@qdigitizing.com