Black and White Emotions

When I walked into the SynArts Cotillion exhibit in Woods Hall, the first thing I saw was the “barrel of hay” sitting in the middle of the floor. I thought to myself that this was going to be a weird, but interesting art exhibit. After coming in late and sitting my sopping wet self down on the cold floor, I started to look around at the other art hanging on the walls. The one that caught my eye was a photograph of an old black man. At first glance I actually thought it was an incredibly realistic drawing. I could see he had a very solemn look on his face and he was wearing a World War II Veterans hat. At a distance, he looked like he could have just been an overworked elderly person, but looking around at the rest of the paintings, I could guess that was not the case. Even though most of the paintings were abstract, I could tell there might be a common theme related to war.

When we were asked to walk around the exhibit and chose two of the pieces of art to write about, I knew I wanted to write about the old man. Next to the student’s other piece, there was a plaque with the names of his pieces. The first line read “Johnathan Purvis” and the second line read “Rufus Davis”. I am making the assumption that Johnathan Purvis is the artist and Rufus Davis is the old man’s name and the name of the piece. It is a black and white photograph with a white background, so the man really pops off the page. He is probably around 65 or 70 with a gray and white beard. Once I got closer I could see the expressions he had on his face. He looks really tired, wrinkly, sad, and almost confused. It is an expression like he is in pain, but really trying to tell the camera something. I didn’t realize it till later when I was looking very closely, but his eyes look like they are watering. It is almost like his eyes are in pain and trying to say something. I think this artist was maybe trying to depict the man’s pain and suffering maybe in respect to the war.

I looked around the gallery after getting all my notes on the photograph. There were some really interesting abstract and colorful pieces, but nothing that particularly jumped out at me to write about. I finally went back to the old man and decided to write about to other piece done by the same artist. It is a piece that has a collage look to it. Under the title of the first photograph, the same plaque read “Rachel Higgin’s Going Away Party” on the first line. Under that line is said “Between 12:30am and 1:15am” and “silver gelatin prints”. This one was also done in black and white. It has a bunch of candid shots with a person or two in each one of them. They look like older college students having fun with their friends. Some of them are drinking, some of them are posing, and some of them are just laughing. You can really see all the different emotions and feelings of all the friends. This collage makes me wonder why he made it. Was it going to be a present for his friend who is leaving town? Was it specifically for this project? Were they just random photos taken and he decided it would be a cool art piece? Since most of the exhibit appeared to have a war theme, I tried to think of an explanation to how this piece fits that category. I couldn’t think of one, except for it might just serve as a contrasting piece to Rufus Davis.

I am guessing that these two photographs are not supposed to be a pair. I couldn’t figure out any way they are similar at first, except the fact they are both in black and white. Then I started thinking about it and I thought they both show emotions. The old man is tearing up and obviously in some pain. All the people in the collage are showing different emotions, but they are mostly happy. I can also contrast it because of the reasons because even though they are both showing emotions, they are different emotions.

I liked the two art pieces I chose. They really made me think and kept me interested. I wanted to know Rufus Davis was thinking. Was he really thinking about the war? Was he upset about something different, and just happened to have his World War II Veterans hat on? Was he even a war veteran? I also wanted to know where the artist found this man. The party picture kept me interested because I wanted to know who all the people were, what they were thinking, why he took those pictures, and even where Rachel Higgins was leaving to go. I guess I liked these two photographs because I had never taken the time to really look at and analyze art before. I have never been a big fan of going to art exhibits, so I found it interesting to look at the “barrel of hay” and the two pieces I chose because I really tried to understand the art. It was also interesting to hear all the different points of view, and to still not know the answer. You really want to get inside the artists’ minds and see what they were thinking!