Green in the limelight

St. Patrick's Day color tints American culture

The Chicago River shines a bright green during the 52nd annual Chicago Saint Patrick's Day Parade in this Journal-World file photo.

Before you buy that green T-shirt as an impulse purchase for St. Patrick’s Day: Beware.

The shade of green might make you look good. Or maybe not.

“There’s a blue-green, and then there’s a yellow-green,” says Janet Mihalchik, a manager at Weaver’s Department Store, 901 Mass. “Depending on your skin tone, if a person has a lighter-colored skin, they would definitely want to go with the blue tones. And if they had more of a darker skin or the colors of a redhead, they would tend to want to go with the yellow-greens.

“Usually, a person will know the difference when they put a green up to them. It’ll either wash them out or brighten them up.”

Hence the complex world of green – both the color and the word.

Spectrum of meanings

You’re bound to see plenty of green today, as Irish-wannabe revelers gather down Massachusetts Street for a 1 p.m. St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

But the term “green” has taken on a more complex tone over the past few years.

First, there’s the obvious use of the word to mean environmentally friendly.

But “green” ends up in a variety of other contexts. For example:

¢ It means “go” at traffic lights.

¢ It refers to someone who is inexperienced, as in a “greenhorn.”

¢ “Green beret” is the informal term for the U.S. Army Special Forces.

¢ “Green room” refers to the space where a performer prepares for his or her stage time, presumably based on such a room that was painted green.

¢ It’s the color of jealousy, most specifically that jealousy is a “green-eyed monster.” Shakespeare used that term, though the origins of the phrase probably go back before that.

Science of green

Margie Kuhn, a lecturer in the design department at Kansas University, says green is the “largest color family,” which means we can see more shades of green than any other color.

She says surveys have shown that blue is generally Americans’ favorite color, followed by either red or green.

“It’s pretty easy on your eyes,” she says of green. “It’s really relaxing.”

There was a time when it wasn’t quite so relaxing.

“For a long time, green was a negative color in the Western world,” Kuhn says. “In the 1800s, green paint contained arsenic, so it had a really negative connotation. Right not, it’s really positive because of the environment.”

From a marketing standpoint, she says Starbucks’ use of green is probably the most revolutionary – in part because company officials chose to use a color that wasn’t brown, the traditional coffee marketing color.

Green in art

Paul Hotvedt, a Lawrence painter, often uses green in his works, which focus on the outdoors.

Because of the wide variety of green shades, he says it’s a hard color to paint with.

“Artists have a harder time convincing people that a green is ‘right’ for a certain situation,” says Hotvedt, who also teaches painting at the Lawrence Arts Center. “As a painter, one way to train yourself to see and replicate green more effectively is to slightly overemphasize the other characteristics of the color that one is perceiving to be green – (making it more) reddish, lighter, grayer, etc.”

He says there is no one emotion that green evokes, saying it’s more about context.

“It’s too subjective and personal to make any universal statement,” he says. “It’s kind of like asking if there is a universal emotional response to the note C-sharp – there likely isn’t. But there would be a more general response to that note and another one of a certain interval.”

For instance: Certain shades of green remind people of specific sports teams, such as the Philadelphia Eagles or the Green Bay Packers. Or certain shades of green and red together remind people of Christmas.

One thing is for sure, though – green fashion will be in style today, even if it isn’t other days of the year.

“For green tops, green is not the color of spring,” says Mihalchik, the Weaver’s manager. “Turquoise, hot pink, black and white (are popular). So, I think definitely, St. Patrick’s Day helps sell green.”