Whitney Barton

A Picture Says A Thousand Words
The two pieces I took note of in the student art gallery were the first two works of art on the right wall in the gallery. I’m not sure if this is why these particular works of art caught my attention or if it was because photography interests me, but they were the two I looked at the most. The first piece of artwork I looked at was multiple pictures lined up in four rows and 4 columns. In total, the whole piece was about the size of a poster. The texture of the work was smooth, almost like it was a slippery piece of paper. The multiple pictures were of a friend’s of the artist going away party. The pictures were taken in black and white, and there was a mix of candid shots and posed shots. By doing this, the artist was able to show the different personalities of all the people at the party. I really liked how he did this, because it was fun to see how all the different people’s personalities are. From what I could gather, I think the artist was trying to depict how he and his friends like to have a good time and just to show how they are in everyday settings. I found out that the artist a\had put up a photo booth for this particular photo shoot. I like this idea because it shows that the artist is fun and unique, and this really shows his personality.
The next piece of artwork I looked at was also by the same artist. This time he took a single photo of an older looking war veteran. It’s a close up shot, with the man staring into the camera. He has a hat on that says World War II Veteran. This photo is also smooth as can be. It is a more solemn photo, because this man is not as cheery looking as the people in the photo booth shoot. This single photo is also in black and white and it is about the size of a standard poster as well. This shows that the artist has a more serious side as well. By shooting two things, such as friends and war veterans, it probably shows he likes to shoot things that maybe matter to him the most.
By just looking at the photos, someone wouldn’t think there were that many differences in the two. You wouldn’t think this because there are things about the two that are identical. For starters, they were both photos of people taken by the same artist. The whole color scheme of the photographs was the same. They were both in black and white film. Also, both pieces as a whole were about the size of a standard poster. Some more things that were similar were that both the subjects in the artwork were people.
But if you look closer and start to think about the two pieces, you can tell there are some things that vary. For instance, even though both the subjects were people, one picture was of friends and the other was of a random man that was a war veteran. Also, another difference was that one of the pieces of art was 16 smaller photographs all lined up in a 4x4 layout. The other piece of art was just a single bigger photograph. The one that had lots of pictures also had multiple people as the subject. The bigger photograph had only one man as the subject. Those seem to be the more obvious differences. If you look at the photographs and think about them, you can see another difference. The picture that has multiple smaller photos is a lighter mood. When you look at the artwork, you get a happy feeling. It might make you think of times when you were with your friends or at a party. The other piece of artwork has a more serious mood. The man in the picture is not smiling. He has a serious look on his face, and looking at the photo does not give you a happy feeling.
I think the idea of his work was to show that people all over the country have different types of lives with different things going on. I reacted to work in a good way. It made me think about things more. Looking at the pictures I could relate to the one with the people at the party. I often forget that there are different types of lifestyles around the country and it made me realize that not everyone is the same. I feel like the artist communicated to me that everyone is different and there are different types of people everywhere. I really liked the exhibit. At first I wasn’t excited about going and I thought it was going to be boring. Once I went inside and started to actually look at the work of the multiple artist, I realized how fascinating it all is. I would rate the exhibit a 10! I recommend that people go to it. It is really interesting to see all the different types of art that all the different people come up with. It shows their personality and what enjoy the most. I think it should be put up again when there is more work to show because I would go back and look at it, and I would suggest other people do too!