Paintings

When I was at TAC, I was limited to analyzing the prints in our collection (because I had to physically display the painting in the library each week). But now, I'm free to analyze anything I want! (Ha!) I'm hoping to do this about once a month.

On a different note, I finished my painting!   Here are some pictures!

My roommate's painting is on the left; she is almost finished. Mine is on the right (there's a mirror behind it).
We paint in the living room with the canvases on garbage bags covering the carpet. No catastrophes yet!

Oh, no! I just realized this has no title! Comment if you have a good idea. It's a scene from the ballet Giselle. The ballerina and her partner are very blurry, because (a) I can't paint people and (b) I wanted the focus to be on the silhouettes, since they're more individual and like real people. Note: the left edge is cropped in this photo. (The iPhone can't do everything....)

Detail: Giselle and her beloved.

My favorite silhouette. He's got a cigar in his left hand.

So, the painting is by no means Renaissance-quality, but I did try to make it meaningful. The focus is on the silhouettes; the dancers are so vague that they might be a thought in the mind of each silhouette. What is each thinking about? Well, I tried to give them each a little personality. I imagine the left-most man as a successful banker; maybe he's struck by the dancers' beauty and the romance of the story, and he realizes he hasn't had thoughts like that for a long time. The woman next to him is older (her hair is grey, which you can't tell from my fuzzy pictures, or my inadequate painting), with an elaborate hairdo; she almost cranes her neck forward to see Giselle...is she jealous? The far left figure sits with his weight on his left arm, gazing straight in front of him--not at the ballet at all; perhaps he is blind, and by enjoying the music sees a much richer ballet than any dancer could perform.

The younger couple in the center are perfect profiles; they are looking straight at each other, so there is no light reflected on their features. They are silent and solemn, struck by the sorrowful scene in this romantic ballet (Giselle at this point is dead; her ghost is dancing with her beloved and in this classic pose of the ballet, you see that she is eager to go to heaven, while her lover aches to have her on earth). They are challenging each other with a thousand questions: what kind of love do we have? What if this should happen to you or I? Will you mourn for me? Will you remember me? The somber moment puts distance between them. But I imagine it strengthens them.

That's way more meaning than the good-ness (like, lack of beauty) of this painting can bear, but that's what I imagine when I see it! First commenter to suggest a title I like gets to go down in history.