After looking at hundreds of pieces of artwork all day, one piece in particular stood out to me. The piece I chose is called Landscape With Grouse, and was created by John Steuart Curry. Landscape With Grouse is a type of art called Regionalism. Regionalism is focused on capturing the American rural lifestyle. In the 1930’s around the time of The Great Depression when this type of art was popular, Curry was introduced to other famous artists with some of the same type of ideas and work relating to Regionalism. All three artists, Curry, Grant Wood, and Thomas Hart Benton, wanted to reflect into their work the American way of life. Regionalism to these artists was a simple concept: artists should paint what is around them, what they see, and what they know.
Regionalism was popular during the time of The Great Depression. This type of art was a reminder to people in hard times of what their homeland is meant to be like and what they were striving to regain. Although a majority saw the purpose and meaning of Regionalism at the time, others strongly disagreed. John Steuart Curry liked to paint scenes of Kansas, where he grew up. One of his pieces shows a family running for shelter from a massive tornado overhead. Many people did not like the fact that Curry was focusing only on the negative aspects of Kansas. John Steuart’s work was not meant to only show the down side to life in Kansas, but to show how people overcame hardship.
I thought about a way to transfer what I had learned about regionalism into my painting. I ended up at the last minute adding a barn and a silo. When I think of the American homeland, right away a classic looking barn and silo come to mind. The final touch was the American flag to top off the complete scene. In my art piece, I attempted to think like John Steuart Curry. To be honest, my piece turned out completely different than I had imagined and I’m glad. I feel very proud of my work not only because of just the painting itself, but because I thought like an artist.
I especially appreciate the way you speak to your decision making during the process. You show a higher level of self-awareness as a writer,and that is an indicator of an advanced writer. I also love how you take pride in what you did even though it came out different than you first set out to accomplish. When you write that you feel pride because you thought like an artist, that is a good reason to be proud. Well done.
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