NEIGHBORING COLORS:
MEXICAN BORDERS

In the towns of the highlands of central Mexico, most houses are right on the sidewalk and share a common façade. Where two adjacent properties come together, often the delineation is by paint alone and occasionally with some masonry. In San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato, both UNESCO World Heritage cities, the prevailing style is to paint walls with a contrasting color on a lower segment coming up a few feet from the sidewalk. For the most part, traditional iron-rich earth tones of brown, red, ochre, and yellow are used, but sometimes, especially in Guanajuato, there are brighter colors outside of this limited range: blues, greens, and even whites and grays. Where houses are built on hilly streets the lower property's scheme often does not align with that of the higher adjacent property. Each property owner chooses how the property is to be painted. Or not. The point of intersection, the border, creates some intriguing juxtapositions of color, form, and texture.

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