Or Else

What’s your first memory? Mine’s about color. Blue to be exact. When I was five, I begged Mother to let me decorate my room. She caved. I chose blue. I even painted my shoeboxes blue.

I joined Brownies when I was seven. That was fun—sort of. My leader kicked me out because I refused to color my trees green. To me, trees are red, orange, and yellow—even purple, pink, and papaya. My Brownie leader didn’t see it that way. Trees were green—or else. I chose or else.

Why? I love color. Color defines my happy place. What about you? Come to find out, color was discovered way before we entered this world:

In 1940, four boys heard stories about ancient tunnels dug outside their village of Lascaux, France. So, one September day they set off on an expedition to investigate a hole their dog, Robot, dug in the nearby woods.

They enlarged Robot’s hole and discovered a long shaft. Boys being boys, they plummeted forty feet to the bottom. Their paraffin lamp illuminated a surreal limestone cavern. Stalactites hung from the ceiling. Stalagmites pushed up from the ground.

The boys were aghast when their lamp flickered on the cave’s walls. Eyes of horses, stags, bison, and black bears stared at them. A seventeen-foot bull glared down from the ceiling.

The animals were so real they seemed to breathe. Their flanks and backs were painted red, yellow ochre, white, and brown. Their bodies were outlined in black. Anthropologists investigated. As it turned out these colors were the first known colors in the art world. Why? They are the colors found in nature.

Aren’t you pleased that 24,000 years ago, during the Ice Age, Homo sapiens chose or else? They used their initiative and colors available to create what is known as “Lascaux Cave paintings.”

Virtual tour of Lascaux Cave:

https://vimeo.com/40849516