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Patches & AppliquesWe often ask people, “What is your favourite color?” It sounds like a simple question, but if you think about it carefully, the question itself is not valid. Why? Because color is never experienced in isolation — it always belongs to something.
Take cream, for example. On a wall, cream feels soothing and elegant. But imagine cream in the pupil of an eye — it would look strange, even unsettling. Blue is calming in the sky, but unappetizing on food. Green is refreshing in a garden, yet disturbing on human skin. The same color, when tied to different objects, produces completely different effects.
This shows us that color is not an independent truth; it is relational. When someone says, “My favorite color is blue,” what they really mean is, “I love the way blue appears in certain contexts — the sky, the sea, maybe a piece of fabric.” In other contexts, that same blue might not be appealing at all.
Artists understand this better than anyone. A painter does not choose colors in isolation; they think in terms of harmony. Red beside black may feel powerful, but red beside pink may feel uneasy. Cream may look dull in one setting but radiant in another. For an artist, color is never a separate choice — it is always part of a larger conversation with form, light, and texture.
This wisdom of art also reflects life itself. Just as no color is beautiful on its own, no quality in life — kindness, courage, patience — has meaning without context. Courage in the right place is noble; in the wrong place, it is reckless. Kindness at the right moment heals; at the wrong time, it weakens.
So perhaps the better answer to “What is your favourite color?” is this: “It depends. I love colors in their place.”
Because in truth, beauty does not exist in isolation. It is always born from balance, harmony, and relationship — in art, in nature, and in life itself.
