Orange

Orange exhibits feelings of melancholy and warmth, in a state of being just off of true happiness and missing the mark ever so slightly.

It is also a place of reflection looking back at the past for answers or signs of achievement in gaining knowledge and going the distance in pursuit of pure satisfaction.

Closely correlated to my understanding of world history, orange is a feeling of longing for “the good times” and regretting the process of getting older. Penny Lane by The Beatles and Another Hopeful Tomorrow by Yu-Peng Chen both capture the essence of wishing to remain complacent in the now despite how fast the time changes. It is the awareness that people will continue to come and go out of one’s life despite the efforts to contain and protect. Orange is a commentary on the shifting of life.

Often we look back at answers, and perhaps even more so took look at how outrageous some things were or point fingers at paintings that seem to have no anatomic understanding. Nevertheless, history seemingly repeats itself and the world is left with this orange melancholy feeling of what could have been done.

Orange takes me back to my sixth grade year and my first experiences with photography. Our tech teacher at the time tasked us with going around campus to create unique compositions. I was drawn to a particular bush of little orange flowers enveloped in lush green leaves.

As I began to snap photos of the bush, my friend Kazu took out a pair of scissors and proceeded to cut the flowers from their roots. In protest, I stuck my hand out to block one of the last flowers from being cut, and my own hand was wounded instead.

The next year, the bush was completely removed.

Interestingly enough, this kid that cut me unintentionally would become my boyfriend years later in high school.

Although the relationship did not last, I noticed that the bush
had once again found its home back in the same place that it had been growing years before.

While orange is a color of reflection and melancholy, it has also provided me with a sense of closure, demonstrated by the songs Shogeki by Yuko Ando and How Far We’ve Come by Matchbox Twenty.

WORKS CITED

Sieberg, Kimberly. “Orange” Spotify, Created by KimiSieb, March 2021. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7A7MMRtO48r8BCy16ptNJx?si=YSgHwDD_Tr-UOtSYjQ0Frg

*Note: All photography is by me. Yes, I might be too lazy to cite them all because most of them do not have titles but their years range from 2015 to 2020