At the museum I chose "Reclamation". I didn't want to pick a piece with any people on it. I also didn't want to pick a piece with any blurbs or explanations next to it to influence my take on it. This was one of his paintings without any water in it.
It was a painting of a tangle of some sort of berry vine. There werent many leaves. The main colors were shades of green and brown, with some mauve-ish for the berries. The berry color struck me as odd because the there were plenty of thorns on the vine, like a blackberry bramble. As someone who has had plenty of memories raiding blackberries fresh off the vine, I have never seen a mauve blackberry. Although most of the painting was dominated by this massive berry bramble, there were bits of old wooden fence to one side and a few planks mixed in.
The main thing that made me choose this piece is that it confused me. I could not tell whether the vine was dead or alive. The colors seemed to suggest that there was a touch of autumn about the vine, that and although there were berries, there weren't a lot of them. The few berries looked to be full grown rather than just beginning to grow. One view I could come away with is that the bramble was dead, having been recently cut and piled up against the old fence of some farm after harvest, with just enough life left in the vine to still show the green. This sort of "reclamation" is common enough practice on many farms. The other view, is that the vine was alive in the last breath of autumn, having grown massive and taken over the old wooden fence of a farm as a way of nature having "reclamation" over something man made from natural materials.
Either way, the piece didn't strike me as negative, like many of his other pieces. Either view I came away with as hinting at rebirth. If it was dead vine having been cleared away after harvest, this would encourage new growth come spring. Berry vines, especially blackberry brambles, will come back year after year and regularly need this trim. If it was the living vine, then there is a rebirth of the wild reclaiming a habitat.
Hi Rhea,
ReplyDeleteI hate to tell you, but "Reclamation" has some real important meanings in it. Did you get a chance to read about it in the book or at the museum? There is a connection to this work and Arnold Chester's paintings....Nature is the key word. Double check and see if there is information on it on the internet. Remember, part of the essay needs to include researching the work. One way to approach it to is further develop the title and "reclamation"...impacts to humanity, society, (good and/or bad).