Holi: Saturated Color

Today is Holi, the spring festival of colors celebrated by Hindus all over the world.  I haven’t played Holi since I last lived in India in 1978, and I miss it.  Yes, one plays Holi, with colored powder and colored water; it’s a messy, exhilarating affair. I remember running all around our colony (housing estate) in an old dress, rubbing others’ faces with color and spraying water from my pichkari, my plastic squirt bottle.  (I remember one bottle in particular shaped like a fish.)  One Holi, my closest friend and I held hands and jumped in the deep end of the colony swimming pool; our dresses were wet anyway, and no adults were looking.  I don’t think we dyed the pool too much, and I achieved a rite of passage I had been afraid to until then: I jumped in the deep end. 

Looking back, I realize that growing up with Holi helps to explain my love of color: bright, saturated color.  The color of the world I inhabited as a child.  I like to wear bright colors, I like to paint with them, and I like looking at them.  One day, I might once again smear them on a dear one’s face. 

Below are some pictures of color in my life recently, and here is a wonderful slide show of celebrations all around the world: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/07/holi-2012-festival-of-colors-spring-songs-photos_n_1326812.html

 

 

The curtains in our living room, made of old saris. 

 

 

 

Pages from my art journal

Windows as art at the Indianapolis airport