Friday, June 20, 2014

3959 Yellow?

Friday, June 20, 2014

I came across a quote from Pablo Picasso this morning:  "There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun."

And it occurred to me --- that's another thing that I don't understand.  The sun has never looked yellow to me (except when seen through a thick city smog).  The sun I see in the sky is white.

When I was little, the teachers yelled at me because I made the sun white in my pictures.  They wanted me to paint it yellow and I didn't know why.  Kinda like when the other kids laughed at me because I made far away mountains blue-gray.  "Ha!  She thinks trees are blue!"  I'd point out the windows to the distant mountains, which were definitely blue, and they still didn't see it.

I don't get it.  Why does everyone always show the sun as yellow?  Does everyone else always see it as yellow?  Is it shown as yellow because that's what it's "supposed" to be?

Is it any wonder I grew up thinking there was something definitely wrong with me?

I don't understand.
.

3 comments:

the queen said...

Blame vanGogh. He painted it yellow and made birds look like check marks, and it's been code for sun and birds since.

Anonymous said...

I never realized how yellow things are until I got cataract surgery. When I had the new lens put in my left eye suddenly everything I looked at with my left eye was slightly lavender. My right eye sees through a distinctly yellowish cast. The ophthalmologist and I discussed this and he explained that the natural lens does cast things in a yellowish tint. You can get that in a new lens if you want but I got the lens that was more efficient in letting me see close up better and got lavender as a reward. Now ultimately in the weeks after the surgery my brain did what brains do and it "fixed" things for me and I hardly notice any difference now. I can concentrate on certain lights and they are definitely purple with one eye and white/yellow with the other. Anyway it makes me wonder if some get a greater yellow effect than others with their natural lens. In any case, I don't look at the sun as it is an unhealthy exercise.

Z

~~Silk said...

Not so much now, but for the first 50 years of my life or so there was a definite difference in my eyes. Things had a slightly pinkish cast with my left eye, and greenish with my right. Apparently it's not uncommon. I recently found some folks on the internet discussing that.

(I don't look directly at the sun- just peripherally.)