Why Hues of Blue

I am not a fan of painting my nails. My fingers are so tiny and I am very dangerous with manicure tools, whenever I try to do my nails I always end up bleeding or with no nails at all. Also, finding the time to go to a salon is a real challenge because of all my other activities concerning more important things other than sitting with useless hands for two hours. I spend most of my days drawing with charcoal and dipping my hands in paint, so getting a manicure it is not really worth it. However, for some strange reason, every year on my birthday I find myself at a salon painting my nails blue. I don't think anyone notices, though my mom and my friends sometimes mention that they love how the blue contrasts with my pale skin, or that they like how it combines with my what I am wearing, but no one has ever mentioned the fact that I only do this on my birthday. I enjoy how the ritual has become my own secret tradition, it is like my own rite of passage, a very personal symbol of coming of age that I share solely with myself. There is definitely something about the color blue.

My nails today, yesterday was my birthday

I think blue is a very ambiguous color. In color psychology blue has multiple connotations and effects on people. To me however, blue symbolizes growing older and wiser. Blue is the color of the sky, and the ocean, blue is where I choose to go when I need an escape, where Veronica goes in search for herself.

I want to explore the ocean and its visual significance in this film. When I meditate about the ocean I always come to conclusion that the ocean is symbolic of a very important transition in my life. The time I first came to Miami to spend Summer vacation I loved to go to the beach and spend time by the sea in Key Biscayne, yet when my parents decided we were going to stay here to live in the United States, my feelings towards the beach were completely alternated. Did I hate the ocean? Did I hate paradise? Why did I have to detach from the polluted and congested valley of Mexico City, the place that had become my home for the last seven years? What was the purpose of starting all over again? Surrounded in blues my life completely changed. And escorted by blues I was to find my own colors, grow up, and accept change.

The irony that compasses me is that I have always had a very hard time accepting change, yet it seems that I am always looking for it. I am constantly craving something different, but when something different comes to me I suffer through change. So do I really want to change? Or am I scared of change? Is my adventurous side just an act? Do I really want to escape?

I am highly reminded of Picasso's Blue Period when I reflect on the importance of the color blue. The monochromatic series of pieces created by Picasso during this time period usually depicted the desolation of social outsiders, whether they be prisoners, beggars, circus people or poor or despairing people.

The Blue Room, Pablo Picasso

La Femme aux Bras Croises, Pablo Picasso

La Vie, Pablo Picasso

I think that blue holds so much feeling and sentiment in general, it is such a mellow yet powerful color. There is a Peter Bjorn and John song inspired by Picasso's Blue Period that says:

I'm a blue period Picasso stuck on a wall 

In the middle of a hall in Barcelona

Trying to figure out how to get down

Cause this solitude is bringing me down

All just a part of what I am

It's just a part of my beating heart,

beating for you

I enjoy this song very much, maybe it doesn't talk exactly about how Picasso felt during this period, but it does reflect on how the singers interpret his artwork. The Blue Period reminds them of how it feels to have your heart "kindly stolen" by somebody but then being left alone, empty, with no heart. Maybe this sounds completely detached from my topic about coming-of-age and development. But solitude and emptiness are aspects that will be explored in this film as well, those themes are directly connected with growing older and accepting change, along with the unsatisfactory bits of life that come upon us.