The Uniqueness of Art
Art is something that can be very different. Looking around the museum I saw pieces that were so different. Each with their own individual styles. One piece in particular caught my eye. It was one from a collection called Monsterlands by Christopher Harrison. It was called La Reina Negra. I saw many unique art pieces, but I really liked the one I picked because it was very strange and unsual. It was bright and isn’t a typical “scary” monster.
In the painting “La Reina Negra” by Christopher Harrison, there are many different parts of it. First thing that I see when I look at this painting is that it is on a white canvas with an orangey, red background that is just roughly brushed on. It was as bright and colorful as a sunset. On the very top it has two ears. They are black with silver glitter in them. Then just below the ears is a pink, soft, fluffy mane that looks like a lion's mane. It goes all the way around the head. Inside of the mane is a sort of face. There are some random black shapes on a white background. One looks like a mouth, one looks like an eye, and one looks like a nose. The face looks a little scary and tough but, I think this paintings voice would be higher pitched and feminine.
The bottom half of the painting has a small narrow part that looks like a neck and then it gets wider at the bottom. It is all black except for the silver glittery circles. The circles are just strung randomly all around, like polka dots. The very bottom half of the image looks like the black is water droplets dripping off. I’m not sure if the “water droplets” are feet or if the image just floats instead. Another thing that I initially thought of was that if this was a real monster that I came upon, she would smell like cotton candy or something fruity.
This painting could have many different interpretations. When the artist created it he based them off micro organisms and how they look through a microscope. I think that is why it has different textures and random colors. They are based off something that he saw and made his own interpretation of. That's why they are so very unique. However, he then calls them Monsterland. So that made me think that they were made based off monsters that maybe the artist has seen in dreams, or things that he feels makes a monster a monster.
This painting to me shows how even if something is labeled as a monster doesn’t always mean that it is bad. Usually when I think of a monster it doesn’t involve anything happy. It's scary and dark and reminds me of bad things. Since this painting is bright, sparkly, and fluffy, it isn’t scary at all. It actually reminds me of a children's book or a birthday cake. This painting reminds me that just because something is labeled doesn’t mean that label is correct. A monster isn’t always necessarily something that is bad. When I looked at the other paintings in the Monsterland collection, they seemed to fit in as a typical monster, but this one was different. It just makes me think how things get labeled but usually those don’t mean anything. It was sort of the odd man out with all the others.
Everyday people get labeled. By things like what they are wearing and who they hang out with. I do it to people everyday. Look at them at instantly have in my head who I think they are. Everyone does it, it's just how we are. My experience with labels though, is that they are almost always wrong. I usually get surprised with what someone is like once I get to know them better. Sometimes it's a good surprise but that isn’t always the case.
In high school there are a lot of labels. Kids don’t even know each other but yet they still think they can judge them. I think that it's frustrating. I don’t get why us kids can’t just either talk and get to know the kid before we give them a label or not judge them at all. We all judge, including myself. I don’t really understand why we do, since it usually just come back and bites us in the butt.
Sitting here on the wood floor of the museum there is art on the walls, the floors and hanging from the ceiling. Bright colors and unique textures. Looking out the window, it’s rainy and I can feel the cold air coming in from it.  There are kids all around me. Some I know really well and some that I know just a little about. In my head I can put labels on the ones I don’t know. I can about bet that those labels are wrong too.  I know how ineffective labeling is but my brain just does it. They probably do it to me too. These pieces of art can tell us a lot. Each one is so different. Looking at them just shows me how different people are and how what they are on the outside isn’t always what they are on the inside.