It's late summer. The light is shifting incrementally each day now — tilting toward a new season. I notice especially in those transitory, crepuscular moments of dawn and dusk. The light is moving towards a new, quieter season in the garden and the colors of my garden are shifting with it. Some of the saturation is waning, other shades are deepening, bright giving way — very slowly, almost imperceptibly — to earthy.
Part of being human includes a general sensitivity to color and light. As with any sensitivity, some of us seem to have been born with a keener sense and range of awareness of light and color than others.
In the garden, color is one of the many elements that shift with light, time of day, time of year, larger geographical influences such as soil composition, nearby mountain ranges or bodies of water. The regional color palette of the American Southwest is different than that of the Great Lakes, or the Great Basin.
Since ancient times, some people have spent their lives honing this understanding and appreciation of light and color — poets, painters, photographers and other “alchemists” — those who seemingly magically use their understanding of the chemistry all around them to transform one thing into another, a momentary glimpse of light and matter into a photograph, a weed and some water into a pot of luminous color.
Joining me today to explore and celebrate the everyday magic of color and capturing color as usable pigment is Sasha Duerr, referred to as a “practicing alchemist” by Michael Tortorello in a 2012 New York Times profile. I recently witnessed Sasha at work over her boiling pots turning ordinary every plants and plant parts into resplendent pigments and I knew just what he as talking about. Watching her work was as magical as watching the seasons shift in front of me.
Sasha Duerr is a gardener, artist, designer, and adjunct professor of the California College of the Arts. She is cofounder of Permacouture Institute, an educational nonprofit in support of regenerative design in fashion and textiles that explores sustainability and the preservation of traditional textile methods. Sasha is the author of “The Handbook of Natural Plant Dyes and Natural Color,” being released on Aug. 23 from Watson-Guptill.
