Painting 1 Blog Post

George Cress, I-75 (1970) acrylic on canvas

In my trip to the Hunter museum, the first non-objective piece of art that really caught my eye was George Cress' "I-75".  At first glance this piece looks like it could be a blur of several different images, but no specific shape or figure can be depicted through it. That is one of the biggest things that caught my eye, it strongly reminded me of several different images, but actually looking at the piece there is no true form. The fact that I could relate personal memories and/or images to this painting is one of the leading factors in my interest of this piece. I think that with art it is very important to be able to reach different viewers on their own individual levels, and leaving the subjects in the piece open enough for everyone to have a different interpretation and experience makes the art even more interesting. The color scheme was another main detail that grabbed my attention in this work. The majority of the painting is covered in cool blues, greens, and purples, and then Cress adds riveting hints of warm reds and oranges that pull your eye to different directions in the piece.  His use of lines and mark making also add an incredible sense of depth and layering that keeps the viewer's eye moving across the plane.  I saw several non-objective pieces that were beautiful and intriguing at the Hunter Museum; however this piece specifically grabbed and kept my attention immediately and the longer I looked the more my interest in the piece increased. 

Lesley Dill, White Threaded Poem Girl, 1996, photo silk screen, oil paint, and threat on tea stained silk

The objective work I looked at, and my favorite work I saw in the Hunter Museum, was Lesley Dill's "White Threaded Poem Girl". The elevated positioning of the girl and subject of this piece immediately captured my attention. The girl in the picture is covered in words from an Emily Dickenson poem, and the expression and detail used in the girl is the most captivating part of this drawing for me. The expression of the woman portrayed in this picture gives many immediate emotions to me as a viewer. The white strings hanging from the different parts of the woman's body give movement across the page to the viewing eye. The strings also seem to give weight or a pull to the body of the woman which enhances the emotions felt with the words in the poem and the expression on the woman's face. Typically I don't enjoy the clash of warms and cools, such as the gray oil paint on the brown paper with the white strings hanging down; however, Dill did a phenomenal job of incorporating these colors in with her portrait and tying them together in a way that the piece flowed together as a whole. The white gives a contrast but it's just enough to grab your attention in all of the right places on the page so that you continue to look, trying to decipher the words in the poem while also observing the features and emotion of the girl.

Abby Tompkins