Wednesday, March 28, 2012

More O'Keeffe: Leaving the City--"Black Cross with Stars and Blue,” 1929

2 comments:

  1. Looking at this painting in light of The Professors House, right off the bat the blue mountains in the background remind me of the mesa that Tom found. The painting depicts a type of serenity about nature with its "cool" colors and the vast nature untainted by man or machine. I think the way that the cross is painted in front of the mountains and overtakes the picture reminds me of looking through a window at mountains, even though I know that it is referring to religion. I believe that the artist is trying to depict a spirituality that nature holds, that it was created by God to be worshiped and treasured by man. This is how I feel Tom Outland looks at nature, as a place of serenity to become one with yourself. I believe it even says in the second part of the book that Tom felt a spiritual connection with the mesa. I could almost see the priest painting this while looking at the mesa, for he believes that it was a place of strong community and religion and respects it because of the early development of the people. I had not looked at the book in light of religion until we talked about it in class yesterday, but I think it is an interesting thing to notice and look more in depth at.

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  2. This painting looks like a picture of someone looking through a window out at the mountains trying to connect with nature but the window acts as a barrier to freedom. Also, the cross that's so close to te painter mind as well act as a barrier to freedom only because going back to Yekel, immigrants were oppressed and had to "forget" their religion and cultures to fit in; so an immigrant character could be looking out the window towards freedom, but America was pushing Christianity and certain barriers to become American.

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