Color Me Orange

I'm one of those incredibly annoying people that never like to sit in the same seat in a lecture hall, church pew or conference room table. Just when the person at the head of the room has figured out who is who I screw it up by changing my seat. Blame it on the fact that I'm a Gemini and can/in fact chooses to see things from different points of view and that I'm addicted to change, stimulation and playing devil's advocate. Perhaps that's why I love traveling so much. And debating and analyzing..... At any rate I bring it up because I have since settling in Taos been wearing, decorating and resonanting with different colors than I ever have before. Now I've always done my kitchen in blue tones but now it's sprayed with of all things oranges and reds. I know, I know, anyone who knows me will have a hard time imagining this BUT here's the thing about the Southwest - the landscape is donned with a rainbow of browns and beiges except the flowers and trees. So my theory is that people crave color here - that's why Taos is famous for its cerulean turqoise trim on its adobe buildings, why people dress in vivid colors (often they don't match - but what's that got to do with it?), and decorate in the primary colors.

So my tablecloth is striped reds and oranges, the cloth napkins are yellow and red, the Taos Inn poster in the dining area is full of van Gogh blues/greens/reds and yesterday I just had to buy some new potholders in striped, you guessed it, oranges, yellows and red. (The name of the kitchen store in town by the way is Monet's Kitchen, I kid you not). My washclothes do not match, one in sage, one in organge and one turquoise. And of course I have different color candles throughout the earthship.
The landscape here is much starker than the Northeast; even the mountains stand out more singularly because they are often seen from a panorama of miles beforehand. My house is on the mesa "me·sa (ms)n. A broad, flat-topped elevation with one or more clifflike sides, common in the southwest United States." Spanish for table. It affords an an expansive, uncluttered view of the Sangre de Christos Mtns. to the east - I once wondered why the house was built facing away from the mtns which means you have to go outside to get a view of them. Naively I didn't realize that they build the adobes facing south to take advantage of the huge power of the sun for solar heating.
And I think all these colors are messing with my brain. In a good way. I felt drawn here to write and create. Creativity demands the ability to see things differently, put them in nonordinary combinations to create something new. And I feel that by adopting the color schemes so prevalent here, as well as the frankly quirky nature of the anglo population in Taos - lots of tattoos, I wonder if anyone has ever done a study on the highest number of tatoos per capita?, dreadlocks, odd looking hats (maybe to cover the dreads?)I am by osmosis becoming more creative. At least that's why I like to tell mmyself - so don't spoil the illusion.