rainbows don't exist either

I wrote my Master of Fine Arts Thesis on color.  I’ve used color in my work professionally for 20 years and if you count all the years before I earned my MFA it would be closer to 50 years.  Color and I go way back.  We know each other very well.  I love color.  But color doesn’t exist.

When I tell you that color doesn’t exist, this is not the rambling of an ignorant online troll, it’s a fact based in a pretty good understanding of how color works with human physiology.  And since I haven’t had the pleasure of teaching this to freshmen art & design majors for a few years now, please allow me a moment to explain.

White light arrives in our human experience either naturally (from the sun) or artificially (from the bulb over your head).  This light contains every color visible to the human eye, along with some that are invisible.  The visible spectrum of light runs through every color humans can see from the reds to the yellows to the blues and on until you reach an ultraviolet that begins to fade from human visibility.  This spectrum or rainbow of color can also be applied in a circular diagram which is called the color wheel.  But that’s only the first part of how color doesn’t exist.

The next part is my favorite part.  This white light, containing all the colors, comes in contact with physical surfaces around us and some of the wavelengths of light are absorbed by the surface and some are rejected by the surface.  Only the rejected wavelengths of light are able to “bounce” off of the surface and are then able to enter the human eye.  This light information is processed by the rods and cones and is then directed into the filing system of our brains where the specific wavelength of light is labeled.  It is at this point that humans can “see” color.  If it still sounds to you like color exists, hang on a second.

Let’s say you’re looking at a blue chair.  That chair has some physical properties.  The chair I’m viewing is a hard wooden chair.  The chair is wooden.  I can prove this by examining the material that is both visible to my eye and has the tactile quality of wood.  I could further examine this by cutting into the chair and having a closer look at the material through a microscope.  The chair is wooden.  The chair is also hard.  It’s pretty easy to touch the chair with your fingers or sit in the chair to prove that this is true.  When my butt bones dig into the unforgiving seat after a few minutes of sitting, I’m pretty certain the chair is hard.  These are physical properties of the chair.

You may also say the chair is blue.  The chair is most certainly NOT blue.  Here’s why:  

When white light comes in contact with the surface of the chair, all of the visible wavelengths of light are absorbed by the surface except for one.  One visible wavelength is rejected by the chair.  That wavelength is blue.  The chair accepts all of the wavelengths EXCEPT blue.  The chair now contains the properties of all of the visible colors EXCEPT blue.  The chair is NOT blue.  It’s everything but blue.  

Color as humans understand it, is not a real, physical thing.  It is instead, a way of interpreting reflected light.

You should, of course, not believe everything you read on the internet so if you’re not properly informed on the science of color and this sounds fishy to you, please open a new browser window and have a little Google for yourself.  Once you understand that the above explanation is correct, come back and keep reading as we move beyond science and human physiology to something more fun.

My Instagram social circles are hilariously juxtaposed.  I’m a contemporary artist.  Imagine that social circle.  I’m also a person who grew up in and still lives in the Deep South.  Another interesting circle.  I’m a running addict so add another crazy circle there.  I’m also the friend and family member of a lot of Southern Baptist religious people.  That one is quite a circle sometimes too.  Imagine an IG feed where all of those circles overlap.  The most interesting Venn Diagram in the world is my IG feed.  

On any given day I will scroll past the latest post from my gay friend and see my Dutch running friend’s pace and time.  Next is a weird painting that I couldn’t explain to you.  Under that is a beautiful field of peach blossoms.  Then there’s the repost of a famous work of art from a museum followed by a photo of a rainbow stolen from the internet with a caption telling me that all rainbows with only 6 colors are Satanic.

Please understand that none of that was exaggerated.  I’ve seen each one of those posts on my feed from people that I know personally.  But, oh, how it gets worse if you tap the little search icon on the bottom.  I still call this the “Explore Page” but I’m not sure if that’s the correct name.  This is where I go when I’m wasting time or looking for funny videos to send to my kids.  This morning there was one of those rainbow posts and I was curious and dumb enough to tap it to read the caption.  Thankfully it was a person I do not know.  The caption was a negative statement about PRIDE month and rainbows being stolen by some Satanic agenda.  Apparently the dude posting had painted some sort of rainbow mural depicting him protecting his children from the rainbow.  Yeah, it was just was weird as it sounds.  Probably worse.  But as expected, it got even weirder in the comments.  Humorously to me, there were 666 comments at that moment.  Most were very supportive of the caption but, of course, there was that one guy who had to tell Mr. Rainbow Mural that his rainbow only had 6 colors instead of 7 colors which is the only correct rainbow.  Another commenter added that the “Biblical” rainbow has 7 colors.

So while you’re being all offended by that, please know that I was also offended, except more offended.  I guess we should talk about why.

I’m in all those internet social circles because I’m a part of each one of those social groups.  Yes, even the religious one.  Except, I need you to understand that I’m not one of THOSE kinds of Christians.  For most of you, the loud Christians are the ones you know and the loud ones are usually the ones telling you you’re wrong or that you’re going to Hell or that you shouldn’t go to Disney (remember that one?) or that you can’t shop at Target or that they are closer to God than you.  I’m not one of those.  Believe it or not, there are still practicing Christians who have learned that not everything they heard growing up was true or Godly.  These Christians love God and they actually do their best to love other humans, regardless of what the other humans do.  I’m one of those kind.  The kind that is offended when people use the name of Christianity or of God to cloak their judgment, hatred, bigotry and personal agendas.

That brings us back to being offended.  It is offensive to me that some Christians have decided they do not have to love people who are different from them.  It is offensive to me that some Christians publicly spread negative or hateful comments online about one activity they define as a sin while completely ignoring literally every other plainly stated sin in their holy text.  It is offensive to me that some Christians see people as projects instead of just seeing them as equals who need to be loved exactly where and as they are.  

But it’s REALLY offensive to me that some moron thinks that the Bible says that the rainbow referenced by God speaking to Noah after the Great Flood had seven colors in it.  Let’s forget the obvious flaw that only newer translations even use the word “rainbow” and get right into the color flaw.

The full spectrum of visible wavelengths of light includes a minimum of 12 named colors.  This includes primary, secondary and tertiary colors.  12 not 7.  And since color depends 100% on the proper working of the rods and cones in your eyes in tandem with how your brain was trained to interpret that light information, no two humans see colors exactly the same way.  This means that on a good day, when you happen to look up from your phone long enough to see a rainbow, you might see 3-4 colors in it.  And if you’re color blind or impaired, start subtracting from that.

Now we get to the other fun fact about rainbows.  They don’t exist.  They’re not real.  Rainbows are not a thing.  Rainbows are a visual phenomenon.  Much like an oasis or a hallucination, the human eye and brain combination work together to allow you to “see” something that isn’t really there.  

The science of rainbows involves a bit of math and geometry and I know when I’m in over my head so if you care to learn about how humans see rainbows, you can grab that browser window again or just click here:  https://www.popsci.com/why-rainbows-look-like/

So there, rainbows are visual illusions that involve light passing through water droplets at a very specific angle causing you to “see” a rainbow or a spectrum of colors.  The light source is real.  The water droplets are real.  Your eyes are real.  The rainbow is not.  

If you’ve read this far, you must have some interest in these topics so I feel like I should share a little more about the rainbow flag.  The original rainbow flag used to symbolize the Gay Rights Movement in the 1970s was designed by artist Gilbert Baker.  This flag had 8 color stripes and each color had a specific meaning.  The idea of using a rainbow was quite intentional.  Gilbert himself said “A rainbow flag was a conscious choice, natural and necessary.  The rainbow came from the earliest recorded history as a symbol of hope….In the book of Genesis, it appeared as proof of a covenant between God and all living creatures.”  Organizers of the 1979 San Francisco Pride parade removed two of the color stripes, not because Satan told them to, but because the pink fabric was difficult to find and they didn’t want an odd number of stripes.  

(reference:  https://parade.com/1048962/lindsaylowe/rainbow-pride-flag-meaning-history/

With this in mind, it is particularly irritating when I hear some of THOSE kind of Christians say things like “They stole our rainbow!”.  Apparently Gilbert Baker was more familiar with Genesis 9 than these ignorant people.  Genesis 9:16 states that God is speaking and says “Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”  All living creatures.  Even the ones you don’t like.  Even the ones you don’t agree with.  Even the ones who celebrate Pride Month.  The covenant is with them too.  

Color doesn’t exist and neither do the silly little divisions we try to set up in our societies.  Different human skin may reflect slightly different wavelengths of light but it’s the same material covering the same interior structures.  Different religious beliefs, different priorities, different values, these are all just words we stick to things to categorize them and they are really just designed to make us feel more comfortable building our little fences to keep “all living creatures” out of our subculture of comfort.  

You are a human designed to live in community with all other humans.  It’s time to start acting like it.  Stop using color to divide.  It doesn’t exist.