I don’t have a favorite color. Every color is important both in its own right and also for its role in combining to make other colors and shades.

For a while, people thought yellow was my favorite color, and yes, I was obsessed with it. Still, it was not my favorite. For a while, it was my signature color. Here’s what happened:

I decided to buy a bike. For me, style is sometimes more important than function. I wanted something like the bike I had as a kid. Fat tires, single speed, coaster brakes, saddle seat, full fenders. The owner of the bike shop said he didn’t have anything like that, but I found one in his catalogue. The Atlas bike.

Oh, that’s more of an industrial bike.

He said those were heavy duty and usually used as rental bikes. Sounded perfect to me.

They only come in one color. Safety yellow.

I bought the bike, and had him add big baskets on the sides, and a chrome headlight. I felt like Pee Wee Herman. Then I got a matching yellow helmet and a yellow bell. That’s how my yellow phase began. I even bought a yellow car.

That bike was fun and stylish, but it was heavy, and I couldn’t ride it up the hill from town to my house.

In the early 1990’s, I went through my red chapter. That’s because I ran a coffee shop and art gallery out of a red caboose.

In the late 1980’s, I had my black and white period.

I don’t have a favorite color. I like magenta but I dislike mauve. I don’t like green for cars, and rarely wear green. I use it a lot when I paint trees.