Critique #1 (Final Copy)

An Even Smaller World

            To imagine something more than what one physically sees. Humanity has explored different worlds and beings through imagination. Josephine Walls does this constantly in her own paintings. Her subjects are fairies, mermaids and other mystical beings that explore the beliefs one may have. Her art has never been something physical or existing in reality.  In the painting “An Even Smaller World”, Josephine Walls employs vivid texture, pale colors, and emphasized focal point to convey that there will always be more than what one originally perceives.

            Making use of vivid texture, Walls is able to emphasize the meaning in her painting. First there are the flowers and vines in the background which are extremely detailed in texture, as if one could reach out and touch it, feeling the leaves and petals.  It builds a base for the viewer to what one can see anywhere in the wild. There then is the texture of the wings of the fairy, which is quite more ethereal and exaggerated and is the first bit of fantasy we see. This is where we see something that humanity in several cultures believes in, yet is not seen in reality. Finally there is the world inside with a textural representation of a small creek with the water flowing and the flowery shrub and twisting trees and shore next to it. With the fairy peeking in and seeing a world one would relate to, yet in a place neither fairy nor human would expect.  This amplifies the meaning. 

            Using pale colors, Walls can exemplify the idea that there is more.  First is the white in the flowers which once again is anchoring the piece to reality. It is something we perceive as normal. Then there is the pale blues and lilac colors which are found mostly in the fairy along with the world and woman inside the flower. Because the colors are more prominent there, it sort of focuses the point that there is more on what has been discovered by the fairy, yet as one looks into the painting, discovering the fairy, discovering this new world.  Lastly, she utilizes the pale greens and yellows to more or less connect everything in the painting together. As it is unified one can see that everything is not what one originally perceived before. And this shows the meaning more clearly.

            Finally, Walls focuses on the focal point of the entire painting, which would be the world and woman inside the flower. First, it is highlighted with a glowing ethereal light; almost blinding, that automatically grabs focus.  It put forth what is more than anyone had expected.  It is also positioned in the center of the entire piece.  The placing of this small world makes it in direct line of sight and obvious. Then it ends with the petals the form a frame around the entire thing, as the vines and foliage in the painting surround the edges. It sort of brings one in and asks them to focus directly at this piece because it is worth it.  Where there is more than one can imagine.

            This painting explores a lot of things; society doesn’t really, at least not in depth.  It gives a look into imagination and how there is what one believes they see and what one wants to see. The viewer is almost discovering this scene in the painting and to see the surprise on the fairy’s face at what she had suspected was just a flower.  And if one looks closer at the painting, the woman in the flower discovers a mermaid in the creek which brings even more, perhaps literal than one had seen before.  There is just more than one originally would have seen which makes the painting more than what one can perceive. This applies to life; for if one can look deeper they can see things they wouldn’t originally and then from that spawns creativity, and ideas and more to the human imagination and wonder.