Verdigris: The Color of Oxidation, Statues, and Impermanence
“Verdigris is emblematic of that movement. It’s a blue-green, yes. But more importantly, it’s a quality. It is hard to give it a hex code because it’s not flat. It’s a color made from change.”
Russet, the Color of Peasants, Fox Fur, and Penance
“But russet means more than red-like, red-adjacent. It also means rustic, homely, rough. It also evokes mottled, textured, coarse. The word describes a quality of being that can affect people as well as vegetables.”
Periwinkle, the Color of Poison, Modernism, and Dusk
Katy Kelleher meditates on mauve, purple, and periwinkle in history, art, and in the beauty of quarantine sunsets.
Safe As Houses
“There’s something childlike about it; instead of hiding under a blanket, we built our houses just so. In this telling, safety is a matter of painting the right sign, hiding the right shoe, or putting in a window.”
The Homeownership Obsession
Writer Katy Kelleher, whose work explores the ugly history of beautiful things, turns her attention to the ugly history of homeownership — and why the manmade dream of owning a home haunts so many prospective homebuyers.
When Mountains Were Ugly
The lair of witches and ghouls before they became an Instagrammer’s delight, mountains are where we go to find a little distance, a little fear, a little magic.
