Reading Response 3

I remember reading the "Hanunoo" chapter before and the slight confusion I had for the book title's name Chromophobia. The fact of being afraid of color seemed a little odd to me. Who is afraid of color? It is harmless, right? Well after reading the "Hanunoo" chapter for a second time, I was intriqued by the answers I found to these questions. The author makes some very important and poetic conclusions about color that can be applicable not only to artists but to people's everyday lives. For one, I agree with the author's statement that colour is alive and active. It can have a mind of its own and pull you into another world, another realm of being by just interacting with the color. This kind of "otherly" expereince is further explained when the author that colour has the power to make us silent because there are no words, only body language, to express our reaction to colour. For example, in my intereactions with colour, I think of my facial expressions that I make. I smile, or frown, or stare, or even turn my head at the sight of some colours. At those moments the power of the colour has forced me to describe it only through the means of my body.
This intereaction of body language and colour leads to what I think is the most poignant theme discussed in this chapter in that "to attend to colour is to attend to the limits of language." I think colour has the power to "take our breath away" or move us in such a way that the word, "blue" does not suffice for the nuance, beauty and poise that the colour presents to us. Colour is alive so it should be able to be described as such instead of being shoved into a dull and unfullfilling word.