Kirlian Photograph

In retrospect, I always immersed myself in color from crayons to painting to Pantone™ color swatch books. I even remember in first grade always hurrying through the phonics pages so I could color the pictures before it was time to turn in the assignment. I saw everything vibrate and move in vivid almost liquid color and just assumed everyone saw the same.

I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Indiana University, Bloomington Indiana and a Masters from Cranbrook Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. I decided on a career in design and fine art assuming that all artists saw the world as I did. How do I see the world? I see everything vibrate and move, even what we would term stationary objects, like trees, plants, and of course people and animals. It is similar to impressionist paintings of Van Gogh, Monet, and Seurat. I believe I wanted to become an artist because of their ability to translate that energy, color onto canvas, and I wanted to do the same. To me the world was an impressionist painting, always moving and always vibrating. Audiences are often surprised when I explain that I must concentrate to keep things from moving.

I realized in an art class that the world did not see things as I did. We were doing “progressive” drawings. In this exercise students rotate every few minutes in a “round robin” method, and at the end of the cycle everyone has worked on each other’s paintings. I quietly realized I was seeing “things” that were not being documented by other students. These “things” were patterns and blotches of color, over the model’s body and around the her body. I knew from my upbringing that it was the aura, or the energy field that we each have around us. It was not a revelation that I saw these colors and patterns, as it had always been there; it was a revelation that others (fellow artists) did not see it. I did not apply the psychic aspect -my interpretations of the colors and their patterns and positions- which is what I term a “reading” until much later in life. I kept this ability to myself and concentrated on the issue at hand – graduating.
Much of my research into the history and cultural origins of color came as I began teaching. I always requested to teach the foundations courses, which I loved so that I could learn more about color. I began teaching at Herron School of Art in Indianapolis, Indiana, which later led me to Indiana University at South Bend, Indiana. My older sister, Sally at this time was a “practicing” psychic, she is very good and although she no longer conducts readings, it was Sally that orchestrated my “light bulb moment”.
I still had not owned my ability to conduct psychic readings; I had my educated guesses and hunches, and was great at academic advising, but did not have a reliable formula outside of immediately saying what came into my head without questioning it first. I asked Sally one evening how she “read” someone and she answered, “I see their energy, it is in color and I interpret that”. “Wow.” I thought, “I can do that” and found that the interpretations of color which coincided with my research of color were not any different that the information the “popped” into my head. In fact, the colors surrounding a person gave me a more accurate source of information, not to mention more confidence in what I was seeing and interpreting.
I taught color theory and design for five years at Indiana University and then shifted to the University of Notre Dame. My color theory classes involved a camera that would take pictures of your auric field, a method called “Kirlian Photography.” I used this technique to help students understand the energy of color and therefore understand the responsibility they had as artists and designers to use color responsibly. I matched up each of the colors to corresponding energy centers, also referred to as chakras and explained the relationship between color and our bodies.

I still kept my psychic ability quiet, having to be careful within the constraints of Notre Dame because I did like my job. Referring to my research of color history, and cultural contexts of color as well as the comparisons to color and chakras. I created a “keyword system” to help my students understand the energy of color. This section of my site will be a comprehensive approach to color, and I invite questions and comments.

Thank you!