Sunday, 1 June 2025

 I have just finished reading this lovely little book.

Maggie Nelson's 'Bluets', published 2009, is a collection of 240 meditations/ reflections/ Nelson calls them 'propositions', on life, love, loss, and the colour blue. It was composed over a 3 year period, as she recovered from a broken relationship, plus caring for a friend, who had become quadriplegic. Very real stuff of life.
It could be viewed like a series of prose poems, as Nelson composed her thoughts about all things blue.

When I thought about CdG and blue, I thought it wasn't a big thing, but no, not true...like the collection, Lumps 'n Bumps, she worked with blue gingham.

Blue is in all sorts of CdG collections, doing its' blue thing. 

The SS 2008 'Clusters/Randomness/Cacophany' collection...


The FW 2012 'Flat' '2D' collection...


The SS 2016 'Blue Witches'  collection...


The FW 2023 'Return to the Source/A feeling of going back to the starting point, kind of Big Bang'...

Bits of blue in the AW 2020 collection...


And cool blue splashes in the SS 2024 collection...


Is this blog going to be a....

Yes, I think so!

What are some of the things Maggie Nelson writes about in her blue book, well...

  • She writes about Derek Jarman.

The book he wrote as his eyesight was failing and the inevitable death of AIDS-related complications was looming in his life.
Chroma provides an understanding of Jarman's knowledge of art history. He writes about red, yellow and gray, and artists and thinkers, like da Vinci and Newton. Of blue, Jarman writes, "The arrival of indigo in Europe caused consternation. Woad was under threat in 1577 Germany. A degree prohibited 'the newly invented pernicious and deceitful, eating and corrosive dye called Devil's Dye.' In France dyers were required to take oaths not to use indigo. For two centuries indigo was hedged with legislation."  
I like this message that Jarman put at the beginning of the book, “I wrote this book in an absence of time. If I have overlooked something you hold precious—write it in the margin.”

Other aspects about blue in Jarman's book reflect on his 1993 film, 'Blue'. 
Working with an image of static blue, the 75 minute film gives the active role to sound through the spoken word of 4 narrators, which could be Jarman's way of inviting the viewer to experience sightlessness.
"The virus rages fierce. I have no friends now who are not dead or dying. Like a blue frost it caught them. At work, at the cinema, on marches and beaches. In churches on their knees, running, flying, silent or shouting protest."
'Blue' was Jarman's last innovation in art. The film's genesis was a visit to the 1974 Tate exhibition of work by French avant-garde artist Yves Klein.

Monochrome bleu (IKB 242A) 1959 Yves Klein


Klein said about blue, "What is blue? Blue is the invisible becoming visible. Blue has no dimension, it is beyond the dimensions of which other colours partake." 
After visiting the exhibition, Jarman wrote in his notebook, 'Make a blue film for Yves Klein.'

A bit more information about the film.

A link to view 'Blue"

  • She writes about Goethe's 'Theory of Colours'

Poet, artist and politician, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28/08/1749 -22/03/1832), published his 'Theory of Colours', a treatise on the nature, function and psychology of colours in 1810. One of his most radical points was to refute Newton's ideas about the colour spectrum. Goethe's idea was that darkness was an active ingredient rather than the mere passive absence of light.

Here is a wonderful image relating to his colour theories from an intriguing blog titled 'Canary'. I always love reels of coloured threads.

A link to the blog, as it pertains to Goethe's, Theory of Colour

What does Goethe write about Blue?
“Blue: as yellow is always accompanied with light, so it may be said that blue still brings a principle of darkness with it. This color has a peculiar and almost indescribable effect on the eye. As a hue it is powerful - but it is on the negative side, and in its highest purity is, as it were, a stimulating negation. Its appearance, then, is a kind of contradiction between excitement and repose.”

  • She writes about Joni Mitchell's 'Blue' album


Blue, Joni Mitchell's 4th album, was released in June 1971. Created just after her breakup with Graham Nash and during an intense relationship with James Taylor, the album explores various aspects of relationships from love to insecurity.
This link will enable you to listen to Blue.

And this link has some great artist musicians expressing their response to the songs on Blue.

  • She writes about Indigo
Glorious rich deep blue-purple indigo. There are many different species of plant that produce indigo, woad is one, but the most wonderful one for its colour is Indigofera tinctoria.


It is labour intensive, but the result is worth it, and it is the most colourfast of the natural dyes.

I think it is explained very well in this video. The young woman understands the science of the process, which is of added interest.

I attended a great Indigo Dyeing workshop years ago. Lots of cool learning was on the agenda, but watching the indigo do its thing was the most exciting. Shame I haven't done any indigo dyeing since then!




I like this CdG indigo dyed striped t-shirt, as it is so described.

And when I was undertaking my pilgrim blog during January 2024, I became inspired to draft and cut a CdG inspired 'pilgrim collar shirt', and the Spotlight fabric I cut it from, was described as 'Indigo'.


  • She writes about Bower Birds
The Satin Bower Birds are renowned for their unique courtship behaviour, the males build a structure, a bower, decorating it with sticks and brightly objects, primarily blue, in an attempt to attract a mate. It is thought they go for blue objects because it's a reflection of his own colouring, which in turn entices a suitable female.

Delightful video of a Satin Bower Bird going about his day.

For their Autumn Winter 1989 advertising campaign, CdG worked with the Satin Bower Bird.


  • She writes about Vincent
'98. Vincent van Gogh, whose depression, some say, was likely related to temporal lobe epilepsy, famously saw and painted the world in almost unbearably vivid colours. After his nearly unsuccessful attempt to take his life by shooting himself in the gut, when asked why he should not be saved, he famously replied, "The sadness will last forever." I imagine he was right.'


  • She writes about Horace-Benedict de Saussure
Swiss scientist and mountaineer, Horace-Benedict de Saussure invented the cyanometer in 1789, a tool to measure the 'blueness' of the sky. It was a simple circular tool with 53 numbered sections, ranging from white to different shades of blue to black. De Saussure was convinced that the colour of the sky was an optical effect. He also argued that, as blue faded subtly into the white of the clouds, the colour should be an indicator of the moisture content of the air.  

If you find yourself becoming very interested in this, then check out this pdf, as it will prove far more informative than I can about the subject.


  • She writes about Leonard Cohen's 'Famous Blue Raincoat' that was "torn at the shoulder"

The song centres around a Burberry raincoat Cohen owned, which was stolen. It is a poetic and enigmatic tale of adultery, reget and loneliness, with the stolen raincoat as a central image.

Cohen said, "I had a blue raincoat. It was a Burberry. And it had lots of buckles and various fixtures on it. It was a very impressive raincoat. I'd never seen one like it. I think I bought it in London. And it always resided in my memory as some glamorous possibility that I never quite realized."

I have always liked Jennifer Warnes version.


This is a blue raincoat I designed for a course, I undertook years ago. The concept was that the lining was exploding out of the coat.




  • She writes about Gertrude Stein's 1914 book, 'Tender Buttons' 

This avant-garde, experimental book of verse is about everyday mundane things.
Here's a pdf, which will enable you to read the book, if you so wish, and it is probably a first edition copy.
https://writing.upenn.edu/library/Stein_Gertrude_Tender_Buttons_1914.pdf 

When I looked through, I wondered "Why the title?" It is suggested by some that it is a reference to women's breasts, ala the nipples. Stein does not divulge the inspiration, she simply states "Tender Buttons will be the title of the book."
A Blue Coat is mentioned in the first section, expressed here in a sweet drawing by Sandra Gibbons...

And here are some creators after my own garmenting heart, as they put together an exhibition based on A Blue Coat verse, plus some of Stein's other ones as they pertain to clothing. (Garmenting: Working with clothing/costume as a visual art form. Garmenting: Making or altering clothing for contemporary expressive art purposes. The garments can be used in installations, sculpture or performance. Garmenting is not fashion, but relies on it, to help create meaning.)

I have always appreciated this Maira Kalman illustration regarding Gertrude S. I know what it's like!


  • She writes about Notes of the Pillow (The Pillow Book) written by Sei Shonagon

This is not a book I am familiar with, but I do know Peter Greenaway's film, 'The Pillow Book'.

Based on Shonagon's text, Greenaway radically transposes his screenplay to modern Japan and the information age.

Here's a link to a slide show, explaining aspects of the book and aspects of the film. Click on the slide to get to the next one.


  • She writes about 'Lady sings The Blues' Billie Holiday

And this time I'm not going with any reference to the film of the same title.

Hear Billie sing the song.

It is also the title of her autobiography. This link enables you to listen to a summary of the book. My ears pricked up at the section, where Billie was described as finding, "solace in the kitchen, the rhythm of knitting, the creativity of crafting jewellery".

The story of Billie Holiday in 5 of her poignant songs.

The blues, BB King's blues, 

that are like, how blue can you get.


  • She writes about the Tuareg people
The Tuareg people are a large Berber ethnic group, semi-nomadic, who inhabit the Sahara. The English term for the Tuareg, "Blue People" is derived from their indigo dyed clothing, which sometimes stains the skin, giving it a bluish tint.



  • She writes about Joan Mitchell's 1973 'Les Bluets'
Here is Joan Mitchell standing in front of the painting, at the opening of a her exhibition held at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1974.

And here is the painting

This short video will give you a good introduction to this fascinating artist, who felt very much up against the boys.


(Thank you, Maggie Nelson, for introducing me to Joan Mitchell)


  • She writes about Andy Warhol's Blue Movie

This 1969 film was written, produced and directed by Andy Warhol. Warhol described it as: "I'd always wanted to do a movie that was pure fucking, nothing else, the way Eat had been just eating and Sleep had been just sleeping. So in October '68 I shot a movie of Viva having sex with Louis Waldron. I called it just Fuck." Warhol the voyeur.


  • She writes about Blue Eyes
'35. Does the world look bluer from blue eyes? Probably not, but I choose to think so (self- aggrandizement).'


Recent research news on the blue eye gene: Studies suggest that all blue-eyed individuals are likely descendants of a single ancestor who lived in Europe 6,000 - 10,000 years ago.


Someone who read the library copy of Bluets before me, underlined in pencil certain sections:

Above all I want to stop missing you

We don't get to choose what or whom we love, I want to say. We just don't get to choose

When I say "hope", I don't mean hope for anything in particular. I guess I just mean thinking that its' worth it to keep one's eyes open

And what kind of madness is it anyway, to be in love with something constitutionally incapable of loving you back?

and then I felt the need to stop, as it was like stalking the person!


'Bluets' has been made into a stage production

Here's a review   https://www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/article/review-bluets-at-royal-court-theatre


Blue On Blue

Do you ever have blue days? (Yeh, they're my melancholy days)

Louis Bourgeois knew about it.


'Blue Days', 1996. 
This is one of the works, in which Louise Bourgeois suspended, stuffed and shaped her dresses and shirts. 
Clothing is a powerful memory, due to its relation to both the skin and the contours of the body. It can conjure up time and seasons. 
LB said, "You can tell your life...by the shape, weight, colour and smell of those clothes in your closet. They are like the weather, the ocean, changing all the time."


There's something in this LB work that takes me to this fabulous CdG blue multicolour patchwork striped shirt.


Picasso went through a blue period.
Self-portrait, 1901


This video will tell you all about it. 

 Blue on Blue...

Joni Mitchell's....
Blue of blue
Sky's in your eyes
Steer you away like I wasn't here
Where do you go when you fantasize


Bobby Vinton's...
Blue on blue, heartache on heartache
Blue on blue, now that we are through
Blue on blue, heartache on heartache
And I find I can't get over losing you


But, I did not know, that in a war, 'Blue-On-Blue' is used to describe an accident or attack, in which people are hit by a bomb or weapon that is fired by their own side! 


Here's some uplifting blue news, the Blue Whale is returning in numbers to Antarctica (Guardian news 2020) Nice one.

And this darling boy in his blue jersey,
as he goes about asking "What colour is the wind?", in Anne Herbauts beautiful book. Artist/author Herbauts was once asked by a blind boy, 'As an artist, could she tell him what colour the wind was?'  In response she wrote, 'What Colour Is The Wind'.
See some of the beautiful pages in this Marginalian link
https://www.themarginalian.org/2016/10/13/what-color-is-the-wind-anne-herbauts/

In Bluets 75th meditation/reflection/proposition, Maggie Nelson wrote, 'Mostly I have felt myself becoming a servant of sadness. I am still looking for the beauty in that.'
This is my garmented response, with what I had to hand.


SLTSLTBsigning off, while appreciating so much, what blue has to offer in the world.

Just remembered Carl Sagan's 'Pale Blue Dot'. It always puts things into perspective, well, for me anyway.



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