The Theme of War

Essay 3 Revision

Woods Hall contains an extraordinary art exhibit, SynaestheticArt Cotillion, filled with moving pieces by a variety of artists. The artwork is colorful, sculptural, and informative; details that make each artwork unique to its own theme. Using such vivid details make it easier on the viewer to clearly see the message the artist is trying to portray. Two pieces really stand out to me. Both use dark colors and unique symbols to portray specific emotions. Emotions associated with war. Mixed Media, by Kevin Wilson, and Strangers, by James Williams, are two extraordinary art pieces that tell a story of the hardships of war; however, the effectiveness of each piece varies. Mixed Media is a stronger piece of art than Strangers when it comes to clarity of dealing with the theme of war.

Mixed Media, by Kevin Wilson, is an endearing piece of art, which portrays an intense idea. An idea of hurt, anger, and hostility related to war is illustrated by the precise details. At first glance, it looks like a window with sixteen sections to it, but at closer glance you see that each section depicts an image of a person. The persons, however, are not identical to each other. All of them have their own distinctive characteristics, which add to the engaging complexity of this piece. Each individual represents a different part of war. Using the technique of dots and lines, Wilson paints of soldiers, prisoners, the deceased, and of Muslim women. Soldiers are illustrated by masks representing the masks soldiers wear in battle. Prisoners are depicted through their shirts drawn with the brush technique of lines. It shows the viewer the black and white uniform worn by most prisoners. The deceased have flames of red, orange, and yellow fire blasting over their faces showing the last moments of their lives. The images of women are painted with red dots on their foreheads noting they may be Muslim with the religion of Hinduism. The integrated details of these four characters prove Wilson portrays the people involved in war with clarity and precision. The emotions of hurt and anger are depicted through each character’s identity. For example, each Muslim woman is painted with soft, frightened, and sorrowful eyes representing the hurt and fear citizens feel during the occurrence of war. The deceased are painted with flames over face hiding their identity as an individual. Wilson hides the deceases’ faces to create an emotion of anger. When soldiers fight, they kill without conscience because that is how they were trained to fight; to kill the enemy at all costs. All these little details in each character confirm that Mixed Media is an effective piece in displaying the theme of war. Wilson does a marvelous job in remembering to incorporate parts of war like the people and emotions involved in the devastation of battle. It is truly an inspiring canvas of art.

Strangers, by James Williams, depicts the same theme of war. Its effectiveness, however, is not as strong as that of Mixed Media. Williams uses clear details, but the details are not precise. Williams’ main way of portraying the emotion of the artwork is through color. Strangers is painted in brown, black, white, and crimson. Not one specific color is bright or cheery. They are all neutral colors creating a gloomy and depressing emotion. This is the sort of emotion a soldier feels after battle. Within the small range of colors, Williams paints out a message, which is the focal point of the picture. The message emitted through a white fog reads, “Strangers on this road we are on but we are not two, we are one.” Strangers in this quote refer to the soldiers on the battlefield. Each army is made up of people from all around the country. They may not know each other, may be complete strangers, but when they come together to fight for their lives on the battlefield, the soldiers become one. They become an army. Williams incorporating this quote is the only effective part of the piece. Without it the artwork would be lacking meaning. The theme and message behind the art is in the quote. In addition, though, Williams paints a black masked out man behind the quote letting the viewer know this man is the speaker. Strangers is a very intriguing piece, and Williams did a very good job in displaying his message through neutral colors and through a quote. Soldiers of war is the clear theme in this piece.

Mixed Media and Strangers are two pieces of artwork that share common themes of war. Both clearly depict this message; however, Mixed Media is more effective than that of Strangers. Wilson uses more intricate details to display his message better than Williams does. Wilson incorporates multiple parts to his artwork including the characters, symbols, and technique of brush stroke. All these characteristics add to the clarity of the theme war, and they allow the viewer to get a deeper understanding of the main idea. Williams only incorporates colors and a quote in his piece, Strangers. He lacks that extra effort of using symbols and intricate details. The message that it deals with war is clear, but there is no extra interpretation to Strangers making it less effective than Mixed Media. Mixed Media and Strangers are two pieces that represent the hardships of war. SynArts Cotillion, located in Woods Hall, supplies these two complex pieces. It contains many more fascinating artworks that tell a story as deep as Mixed Media and Strangers do.