City and Colour

Yesterday I told you about how I fell in love with Mike Kelley's miniature city the moment I saw it, I even wanted to live there. Will it ever be possible to live in a translucent resin city? Well, that might be something I regret the first morning when I go to take a shower, or possibly when I have to watch others doing the same. However there are places in the real world where colour does rule, and in the past week I've seen a few of them on blogs and on my facebook feed, so I thought I'd round them up for you.

First off, a timely Olympic salute from Plenty of Colour, finds London's Riverbank Arena for field hockey embracing the limitless possibilites of artificial turf. Instead of pretend grass green, they're using a cerulean blue and a hot pink. It's generating buzz from the media, and the decision was not a purely aesthetic one (unlike my life where I make all purchase decisions based primarily on colour) these colours were chosen to be easier for spectators to process. 

Here's the lovely painted house of Katwise, a fabric artist in New York state. She took a shabby white house and transformed it into a piece of colourful art. She chronicles the whole process on her website, including the day she walked into the paint store and said "Give me one of everything!" She's truly an artist living her aesthetic in all aspects of her life. That reminds me, sometime I'll have to give you a tour of my house where colour rules as well, although not this vibrantly.

Finally in Taipei, as part of Very Fun Park 2012 (Really? The project name alone is making me happy!) Takashi Iwasaki has designed beautiful temporary installation on the Fubon Financial Centre. Not only does it look cheerful and buoyant, it perfectly conveys his artistic style on an enormous scale. If you're not going to Taipei, you can find his work on a smaller scale on his website or at an August show in Winnipeg. I'll be going to Winnipeg soon, so I'll check it out and report back.


Colour has the power to uplift our everyday lives when it's used in design. As I mentioned, my own home is very colourful and I find it a cheering contrast to the grey Vancouver weather. Occasionally people ask me for help in choosing their paint colours, and I'm always encouraging them to go for something bold and crazy. It really makes you feel happier, and that's worth a lot!