Visit to Childress’s studio in Easthampton, Mass.
It starts, of course, with water. A bath for the newborn, a baptism for the blank canvas.
Add phthalo blue, the solar color. Retinal cones fire in a way that no other color can coax. Light.
As babies age they develop the ability to see color. So do cultures over time. At first there is only black, white, and red. The history of literature of each culture slowly adds colors. Without words, say without the word blue (or phthalo), it does not exist. Blue is always last.
