Shades of Green

John Patrick Shanley Apartment Wall

American play­wright John Patrick Shanley loves to throw down lav­ish din­ner par­ties. Guests are greeted by bold, unabashedly col­or­ful walls in his Manhattan apart­ment. Mr. Shanley has had a life­long fas­ci­na­tion with color and its abil­ity to elicit responses and rem­i­nis­cences. He is par­tic­u­larly drawn to green, a con­stant aes­thetic in his homes through­out the years. The spe­cific shade he chooses is closely tied to his emo­tional state-of-mind at the time, be it an unset­tling acid green or a vig­or­ous kelly green. He cor­re­lates the par­tic­u­lar suc­cess of a recent gath­er­ing at his Gramercy Park apart­ment to the liv­ing room walls, which are painted with a pep­per­mint leaf green. “I find that green is com­fort­ing to peo­ple,” the award-winning stage direc­tor recently told The New York Times. “It makes them want to stick around.”

Green is much more than a relent­lessly rag­ing mar­ket­ing catch­phrase. Green is abun­dant and plen­ti­ful, con­cep­tu­ally pos­sess­ing more tints than any other color — from sea-foam to emer­ald to virid­ian. Green rep­re­sents tran­quil­ity, fer­til­ity, finan­cial vigor and growth. Conversely, it describes jeal­ousy, ill­ness or inex­pe­ri­ence. Not unre­marked by Mr. Shanley, it is also the national color of his ances­tors’ Ireland. Green owes its strongest iden­tity to nature; how­ever, in par­tic­u­lar the sea­sons of Spring and Summer.

As the earthy crisp­ness of fall approaches, we should rejoice in the virtues of green as they fade. Take time to appre­ci­ate the calm­ing and cen­ter­ing effect on our psy­ches dur­ing your time out­side. You will not wit­ness its nat­ural grandeur again until next year. Unless, that is, you are inspired by Mr. Shanley to pick up a paint brush.

HighStreet.Cincinnati