“Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet.” —Paul Klee

The healing green of trees, the calming shades of the ocean, the almost transcendental silver beam of moonshine, the brilliant golden rays of the sun… all colors come with accompanying feelings and emotions, on both a universal and individual level. 

If the riotous world of colors fascinates you, check out COLOR CURE, a group invitational exhibition at ZINC contemporary (@ZINCcontemporary) that runs now through June 26. The exhibit is a celebration of color and the positive psychological effects it can have on our brain and well-being. It also offers a counterpoint to preconceived ideas of art history that colorful art is not serious art while offering a much-needed visual respite to the challenging times we’re currently living through. Art has proven therapeutic effects on the human mind and soul.

Participating artists include Laura Berman, Martina Nehrling, Sarah More, Barbara Robertson, Conny Goelz Schmitt, Alayne Spafford. You can even meet the artists at the closing reception, or invest in a piece of artwork for yourself!

We spoke to the artists about their soul color—one found in nature that inspires them the most. A possible side effect? You might get roused to pick up some paints and create something of your very own.

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Laura Berman (@bermanlaura)

Living in Kansas, I am spoiled with magnificent skies. Each day is different and dynamic, with weather systems traveling across the expansive and timeless landscape. My favorite color in nature is ‘sunset’ because of my experience with midwestern skies. I have enjoyed the spectacle of the sun tucking itself just below the curvature of the earth many times here in Kansas, where it is easy to find a vista as long and wide as one can possibly see.

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Barbara Robertson (@bqrobertson)

The colors that I love most in nature change by the day and sometimes, by the hour. Often the intensity of the attraction depends on the light; periwinkle blue in the shade, orange-tipped with violet in the sun. Seattle is a feast of color in the spring with the azalea’s and the tree peony’s best pinks in the world.

Every color is delightful and enriching in its own way. Because our perception of color always changes in relation to what other colors surround them, combinations of color create their own world of sensation and light. Working with color is always uplifting and exciting even when the colors are dark. Working with intense, sensual, saturated color has really kept me sane during the pandemic.

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Sarah More (@sarahhelenmore)

Letharia vulpina, also called wolf lichen, has a bright, acidic green color that electrifies the landscapes of my High Desert home. The color itself seems unnatural and out of place within the browns and grays around it, as though it was created in a lab or designed by aliens from outer space and dropped to down to earth. The vibrancy of this color indicates the plant’s high toxicity to mammals, yet despite this, the color brings me great delight when I find it when I’m out enjoying the outdoors. How strange to find something so bright and synthetic along the dusty trails in the desert.

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Alayne Spafford (@alayne_spafford)

Every kind of color affects my mood and inspires me, I think it is kind of an innate thing you are born with, or it is for me anyway. As much as I love a grouping of multicolor (and I really do), my favorite color hands down is green. I love many shades of green including a pure kelly green like the color of the rolling hills and cliffs in Ireland, but my absolute favorites would have to be the blueish-green opaque color of glacial lakes. Every time I see that color in nature it never fails to impress me and almost gives me a shot of adrenaline. It’s like nothing else, such a specific color, and just so so beautiful.

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Martina Nehrling (@martinanehrling)

I am not comfortable with superlatives but it really is true that I like all colors, especially colors in relation to one another.  Analogous colors nurture me.  They are both soothing and expansive.  When colors of contrasting temperatures come together, I delight in the perceived movement of shapes receding and advancing.  I love the visual rhyming that occurs when a color or sequence repeats among other colors.  I almost hear the musicality of it.  Grouping “muddy” colors or chromatic grays with saturated colors reminds me of the kind of overcast day I find most soft on the soul, an almost shadowless luminosity yet with depth and vividness.  A single solid color is familiar as a concept but unwelcome to imagine.

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Conny Goelz Schmitt (@connygoelzschmitt)

My favorite color is green. Most of my experiences I associate with the color green were positive: Grass green brings me back to my childhood in Germany where I spent a lot of time outside playing in the garden. Forest green reminds me of the woods: I love to take long walks there to clear my mind. Celadon green inspires wanderlust in me since it transports me back to my wonderful experiences in Taiwan and China. My first favorite dress was green and so was my wedding dress. Green is one of the most soothing colors. It is the color that has the ability to lift my spirits and it is the color I miss the most in the winter.