Colors

We've been in a deep freeze for the past couple of weeks here in Western Pennsylvania, with temperatures in the single digits up  to the teens and low twenties. The good news is that the days are getting longer. The late day light has a longer slant and tonight -- I got  home around 5:14 -- the dogs and I were able to take our evening walk in dusky light. As we came back down the street out of the park, the sunset was fading from cool slate to clear gold to brilliant coral on the horizon. The horned owl hooted above us in the park, then flapped away to a distant tree.

Color has been a lot on my mind lately. My living room is painted a deep Oriental red and decorated with various framed paintings of birds, mostly cranes, that I've inherited. Over my fireplace is a screen depicting a stand of bamboo and a lone sparrow done in black on gold that my dad's mother bought in Japan in the 1960s on a round-the-world tour with the Congressional Secretaries Club. I love the red and have been trying to figure out good complementary colors for the adjacent dining room, which is small and houses a Mid-Century Modern teak dining table (minus its two leaves) and chairs. The set was purchased by my parents at a PX in France when we were stationed there in the 1960s. The chairs originally had seats covered in a nubby cool chartreuse wool, with tiny flecks of brown and flax. They're presently covered in deep teal and the two captain's chairs in deep lavender. My choices. I thought they were good at the time, but I now want to get back to the warm smoky chocolate and cool chartreuse/lime green scheme. The room will be painted in the warmer deep smoky brown below the chair rail and a pale smoke above with the chairs in a kind of warm-ish chartreuse. Hmmm... Sounds almost too 70s. But they will fit nicely with the red of the living room and the celadon planters I have there. I could also do them in a nubby wheat fabric as well. 

Colors. Speaking of, the NYT had an article today about the Obamas and redecorating the White House, specifically focusing on the re-dos that Jackie Kennedy implemented with the help of favored designers.

The article is here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/opinion/21needleman.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

I remember seeing, not live on tape but many years later, Jackie's televised tour through the updated White House. I don't get the sense that Michelle Obama is that kind of behind the scenes person-- personality and the times. But, about six or seven years ago, my Mom and sisters Elizabeth and Mary drove down to D.C. from Pittsburgh for an exhibit of dresses Jackie wore as first lady, for trips she took, and for parties she planned. She looked fabulous no matter the occasion but the memory I carried away was the huge reproduced photo of the gathering of Nobel Prize winners that the Kennedys sponsored at the White House during JFK's first term. Brains and style on display. This was in the Dubya's first term and was particularly poignant because it had become so clear by then that brains, discourse, engagement and humor were among the least of the 43rd president's interests.
Well. We now have a president -- I was going to say leader, but I truly do not believe George W. Bush was a leader -- of a different color. Good luck Mr. Obama. You will need it, but I don't think you will wait for it.

Turning 180 degrees... or even further...
I am going to India in March to visit a friend and former co-worker. Never would have picked Indi on my own, but its a hard invitation to turn down. Kim, my lovely friend, has been posted in all kinds of places because of her husband's work and I am happy that she has offered to be a tour guide for a week.