R3aDinG C()mp. 7 : Inquiring Eyes...

While I was soaking in art... with the sponges inside my inquiring eyes I came across the Landscape section. Looking at the "Landscape: Real Surreal Constructed" section within Weatherspoon Art Museum Exhibition at the UNCG campus, I noticed that majority of these pieces depict symbolic and abstract interpretations of the earths surface and the things which are found and inhabit within it... 
It shows life. 

All of these pieces took a very different approach to landscapes.. however the one which caught my attention was entitled : Anna-Maya (1990) by Pinky Bass (American, 1936) and Clara Couch (American, 1923-2004).

quick sketch by moi 

This piece exhibits the elements and principles known to design in a surreal way. The fact that it was photographed in black and white gives it a certain mystery... a secret... something unknown to the exhibiter. 
The fact that it was in black and white also creates opportunity for its audience to focus more on the context which was actually photographed.
The "Gnarled and indistinct imagery make this a true portrait..." (Adeline Talbot) 
... A portrait of a woman driven to see the unseen in her work... in her life. 


The drawing which I have constructed is a simplistic diagram which depicts what happens when a mirror reflects.
Things become lost... while others are suddenly noticed in a new angle... or line of sight. The layering of the tree over half of the woman's face obstructs both the viewers vision as well as it obstructs the woman's vision of the audience. 
I drew my diagram in the form of half of a rectangle to symbolize the tree covering the elderly woman's face. 
This piece is "rich with emotion.. it is unsettling.. which only adds to its claim of authenticity."
As abstract as this piece is... it makes me consider the ideas of design, the foundations, the concepts. Fine Art is not the only category of expression which considers form. Architecture is "the art we cannot escape." (Roth p.612) It is the only thing that materializes our way of life, our world, our secrets. The buildings we create draw "imagery that is comforting and reassuring in a destabilizing world" (Roth p. 584)