Brown. Brown eyes. Brown hair. Pale brown skin. In
magazines and television the people often have an entire palette of color in
their coloring. Hair and eyes sparkling with mountain streams or conifers,
stony jewels and precious metals. But not I. The painter only the range of one
color. Brown. One plain and common place color. Brown. Like a female bird of
the amazon, my coloring holds no place against the vibrant and iridescent
feathers of the male birds of paradise. Each flamboyant creature has a practical
pair. A spectator to pass judgment but never to put on a show. To be
entertained never to entertain. But we birds of skin can paint ourselves a new,
if we wish camouflage the common place with something more exciting. Even the
birds of paradise hide their true feathers beneath a more homely varnish. Scorn
the original artist, the birds of skin have seized the brush and paint, and
work, and work at themselves. Children that hurry to spill as much pigment as
possible on the starch white canvas that they see in the mirror. I for one
prefer my own rainbow of brown.