There’s a website called “colourlovers.com” that’s a bit disappointing; just a bunch of palettes. Of course, palettes can be very useful. Color is a big part of my awareness—the color of things around me, of the sky, of people’s clothes—it’s part of how I see and organize the world.

At my mother’s house in New York I was struck by the quality of light one morning. I took some photos of a pair of pink leather slippers my cousin brought back from Morocco, contrasted against my red nail polish and a purple skirt. The watercolor on the left approximates that arranged palette.

Other palettes compose themselves. I snuck the photo below on the subway: navy + yellow book + red nails + canvas, and painted the swatches above. The palette above is a version of this color set.

A newsstand caught my eye because of an article called “Ariel Pink” featured on one cover—almost my name—and I liked the mix of pink and peach and brown in the photo of a guy in a black dress. That’s the palette above on the right.

I’m not sure what I’ll do with these palettes… for now they’re just reminders of pretty things.