Colours of my life
A gift for Orit, on her 40th birthday, from her spouse.
A collection of booklets that form a shared-identity-card between two people
and describe both their personal space and their joint space in colours and words.
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It can be said that Orit’s gift was created own its own as a natural extension that was inspired by a short story called “The Rainbow Circus”, written by Orit.
Here is an excerpt:
“I used to believe that everyone dreamt they were blind, or rather colourblind. Just as I thought that everyone’s parents, or rather everyone was a clown (…)
When did the colours disappear and when did they return?
Things were changing all the time, but I did not notice when and how the turquoise and the gold, the deep blue sea, the purple orchid, the violet, rose, green, pink, brown, yellow… colours were back where they belonged.”
When I read the story I envisioned a woman speaking a language of colours and hence I created a gift that speaks the same language and radiates Orit’s own colourful world back at her.
The thoughts and images that came to my mind while reading her story served as the building blocks for creating this gift.
“Colours are back where they belong”
The notebooks were made in the size of a passport, which were designed according to the colour code and words that were chosen by loved ones. Each notebook is like a shared-identity-card between Orit and the person who participated in creating her gift.
A word is written on one side of each notebook and the name of the person who chose it is written on its other side. The left hand pages are written upon whereas the right hand pages are still blank and full of possibilities. On these pages Orit can record her thoughts and use the words that were chosen for her as a title, or as an inspiration, for writing a poem or a short story.
And what was in it?
Colours;
Not colours for painting
I got a box
Inside were
colours.
This is what I saw, what I felt, this is what I got and this is what’s left.
Taking another look, I saw that the colours are miniature booklets
And each booklet is from a friend,
And the colours depict each friend and our friendship.
I don’t live in Israel
and my family and friends are far away
and on my 40th birthday
they were so close
I don’t know there is any closer than that
and it remained
with me
not only as a memory or keepsake
it remained
wrapped in a box
inside were
colours.
Orit