Kylie Dekin
Adam Weinstein
English 101-099
24 September 2007
ART
When I went to the Syn Art Gallery, I started to wonder. I started to think about what art really is. I did not know. I always thought art as being big elaborate pieces created by really famous artist such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Vincent Van Gogh. I only thought paintings were considered pieces of art. Looking at all of the pieces showcased at the Syn Art Show at Woods Hall, I started to change my mind. Two pieces from this gallery helped me find the real definition of art.

The first painting that caught my eye gave me the creeps. It was a smaller canvas painted with water colors and black oil pastels. The water color was used to paint the background. It started off a dark red color and faded into a light pink color, going from left to right. The fading reminded me of a sunset but sideways. A girl’s face and tall hair was drawn with black oil pastels and water color. The face was drawn all the way to the right of the canvas. This alignment caught me off guard because it was not centered which seems to be how things are in most cases. The artist, Lauren Strain, made the oil pastel and back ground watercolor smudgy and drip randomly. This pointed face has two big dark eyes that stare right at you full of emotion and mixed feelings. What is so unusual about the eyes is that one is rounder and lighter than the other eye. The other eye is darker and narrower. The innocent eye is in same section as the pink background and the narrower eye is in the red back ground. I think that the artist is trying to tell her audience that this girl has two sides of here if you really look into her and get to know her. But if people just go by looks they would assume that she is an angry and sad looking girl. Under the eyes, is a yellow water color blob, smudged around. This smear goes all the way down the right side of her face through the top right corner of her lip and all of her bottom lip. There is more yellow on the side with the innocent looking eye. When I think of yellow I think of happiness, sunshine, and warmth. This yellow shows that this girl does have some happiness on the outside even though it may not be a lot. The most unusual part of this painting is the round smudge on the bottom left of her face. There is a big circle of red and maroon smeared all on the side of her face to the bottom part of her eye. Part of her left side of her face seems missing as if people were missing a big part of her. Everything is very smudged and streaked. The face, the hair, the eyes, the nose, and the lips all had this affect. The smudging of the black oil pastel looks like wet mascara running down a girls face after she has been crying. I think that this girl was crying because people were judging her by the outside and not the inside. She wants people to know that she does have a happy and joyful part to her as well even though it does not look like it on the outside.

The second piece of art that I choose, called Night Terror, was made of many different materials. All the materials that were used made the piece look old and spooky. The artist, Daisy Winfrey, glued old pieces of newspaper and tea stained notebook paper to a medium square wooden box to create an old dilapidated house or room. The angles that she used also emphasized the aged affect. There is an old wooden floor lying at a slant. The floor is made of brown newspaper. The newspaper symbolizes the history and secrets that this room holds. The floor has very defined and precise detailed work done with acrylic ink. Each piece of wood is crooked and looks decayed. It looks as if somebody could fall through the floor. An old looking twin bed is placed on top of the slanted floor. A woman is laying under a detailed quilt with her eyes wide open waiting for something to happen. Her face is covered with many lines and shapes. I think that the artist used these lines to show her audiance that this lady is very old and has many memories, stories, and events that could have happened to her in life or this room. There are three brown bats flying in this run down room. The bats were drawn on pieces of faded brown paper and cut out and glued on to this box. Each of the bats has a different face and a different detailed line pattern drawn all over its body. These line patterns are all similar to the line patterns on the ladies face. Maybe, the bats and the woman have some kind of memories together or experiences. The wall of this old bedroom is painted black. A light brown paper is paper mached on top of the solid black paint. This technique created an old looking texture. There were many tares, wrinkles, light spots, and dark spots which gave it an old effect. Random clumps of skinny pieces of notebook paper are glued sporadically around. Pieces of royal purple paper with gold designs are glued about looking like old torn wall paper. The colors remind me of royal and wealth. Maybe this old lady was once a wealthy person. There are two splintery white windows in this room. A boy is peeping through the window farthest away from the bed. His eyes are looking up and looked scared, possibly scared of the bats. I think he is scared of the old woman. The boy, wearing a backwards baseball hat, was spying on this old lady as if was a Friday night dare by his buddies. There could be rumors that this lady is crazy and people are scared of her. The lady looks tired and worn out of people always spying on her. The boy is the is night terror.

Both of these pieces have many differences that can be easily pointed out. One painting is simpler than the other. The paining of the girl is simple of how it was done. The artist used fewer materials but got her point across by making parts of the face very dramatic by making the face and background lighter and darker. The audience knows that there is something wrong with this girl by looking at the detail in her eyes and lips. They think she is an angry and dark person. The other piece of work used many materials to make it easier for the audience to interpret the right atmosphere. She used materials that would help pull the theme together. She used old looking things such as the square wooden box, old newspaper, and tea stained notebook paper, and combined it with different techniques to create an old haunted look.

Color played a big role in Lauren Strain’s untitled piece of work. Reds, pinks, black, and yellow set the mood. When somebody sees red he or she might of anger or danger. Pink is thought as love and black is known as dark, evil, and mysterious. Yellow shows happiness and comfort. So when we look at this piece we can automatically get an idea of the mood and atmosphere of this piece work. Obviously this girl had many mixed emotions showing. Daisy Winfrey, did not use color to set the mood. She once again used textures, detail, and techniques to create an old and haunting look. The old newspaper, tea stained notebook paper, cut outs of bats, and a wrinkled paper masche technique created the age look.

Both paintings have similar messages. The picture of the girl looks dark and angry on the outside but she really does have a softer side if you really pay attention to the detail in her eyes and mouth and with the colors that are used throughout the painting. She just wants people to know that she does have a soft and happy side it just may not be right at this moment. In the other piece, it seems like the boy is spying on the old lady like she is crazy because she sleeps with bats and lives in an old and dilapidated house. This has a mixed message too. When we read the title Night Terrors and see the bats, it just automatically pops in the looker’s head that the bats are the terror. But that is not the case. The boy is the night terror by spying on her. This painting reminded me of how in, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the three kids, Scout, Jim, and Dill, were always spying on Boo Radley because of the horrible rumors that were gossiped and spread by the town’s people. Boo Radley ended up being a good person. This lady lives the same life. She is probably really nice if people would get pass the rumors. Both of these women want a fair chance to live a happy life but cannot get it with everybody judging them on their looks, attitudes, and rumors.

These two wonderful pieces showed me that anything can be art. A painting, a sketch, a wooden box with paper glued on it, a piece of poetry, a song, or even a photograph. As long as it sends some kind of message to the audience than I believe that art is created. Art does not have to have one message though it can have multiple. I realized that is the coolest thing about art. So many different messages can be deciphered from one simple piece. At the Syn Art Show room, there were so many different and great pieces. There were photos, sketches, paintings, sculptures, and musical instruments. Each and every piece was art because they all had some type of meaning or message depending on how you looked upon it. This art gallery was time worth spent.