I have been analyzing you for the past several weeks for my English class’s final writing project of the semester. You have given me a new meaning to art, not just sculptures but to anything you can analyze. When I was first told I was going to be analyzing you I googled your name, and to my surprise something out of the ordinary came up. There was a power point show that the Sheldon Art Museum must have showed to a tour they had. It told me the basic information I needed to know. There was information about your artist, what you looked like, and some basic questions that I asked myself about you as an art object. These helped me get started with analyzing what I thought you were. From first impressions I thought you just a head tilted at an awkward angle. I also noticed you looked like a sad and lonely head. I got the implications that you were sad from your narrow raised eyes brows, lined eyes, and slightly frowned under mouth. Another factor is the way you are facing and on the side of your face gave me the impression that you had maybe fallen or were dreaming of something harsh. The ridged indentions on the back of your head also intrigued me. When I first saw them I thought that maybe they were scratches or maybe you were whipped. These implications also lead me to the smooth leveled bottom of your neck. It seems to me that someone just sliced your head off leaving just the head to be looked at. All of these inferences lead me to think that you had a sad life and therefore are a fallen dreamer.
Before this writing project I didn’t have much experience with art objects so every time I analyzed you I kept coming back to the question “What is art?” By the end of last week I developed an answer to that question. Art is produced using skill, which is “acquired by experience, study, or observations” in a creative fashion for the purpose of creating an aesthetically pleasing outcome (Merriam-Webster). It required some artistic skill to create you the way you are. The composition of the shapes, lines, and color of your appearance required some artistic skill, as did working with the bronze to construct you as a product. Your artist in particular, Tom Otterness, has been working with art sculptures for well over fifteen years, so some may say he’s an expert. He has played an important role in reintroducing narrative and figurative sculptures as a vital art form (Sheldon Sculpture Brochure). You were aspired from the giant Olmec heads that were created by ancient Central American cultures well over 3,000 years ago. Many of these heads were fashioned in the round, portraying the human figure in squat but accurate details (ageless classical reproductions). You have very similar details to the Olmec heads created; a significant difference is the placement of your head and how you are made out of bronze and original Olmec heads are made out of solid casting stones.
In some of our pre-writing assignments we were asked to reconsider our art objects in question as an “intensification” of what we originally perceived it to be. Instead of seeing you only for your aesthetic value—a bronze head with significant detailed facial features and tilted on the side of your head—we viewed you through an exaggerated lens. With that said you could represent a number of things. The term Fallen could be described as “those people killed in war or battle, especially while fighting” and the term dreamer can be defined obviously as somebody who is absorbed by fantasies or unrealistic plans (word-dictionary). So, you as a piece of art could have been someone who was in war and fallen because you were daydreaming.
I also viewed you as an intensification of the natural environment in which you are located. You are placed directly in front of the Sheldon Art Museum and placed in the middle of the cement steps. From a distant look of your surroundings it is almost like you had fallen down in front of a castle. I get this idea because of the material the Sheldon Art Museum is made out of and the way the front of the building has huge-like pillars. When people walk by the museum it is almost like you are welcoming them to it. Since you are directly in front of it, it makes the people literally walk around you, but also look at you. I walked by the Sheldon yesterday when it was snowing indefinitely. I was thinking that I could feel your pain just walking through the snow. And yet when our class was analyzing our sculptures a couple weeks ago when it was extremely nice out I thought it wasn’t right for you to have such a sunken look on your face. So really the environment reflects many perspectives of art. It can change the way you look or think about things.
I would like to say thank you for making my experience for my final writing project intriguing and out of the ordinary, but it also helped me understand art from many different perspectives. Analyzing you has also made me use my imagination to its full potential. Thank you again for being there and letting me examine you.
Sincerely Yours,
Kelsey Vesely
Work Cited
"Art." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Merriam-Webster Online. Accessed 7 Nov. 2009 from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/art.
Olmec. Web. 30 Nov. 2009.
Olmec Colossal Head. Ageless Classical Reproductions. Web. 7 Nov. 2009.
Sculpture Brochure. Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. http://www.sheldonartgallery.org/photos/graphics/sculpturebrochure.pdf.
Tom Otterness. Artnet. Web. 30 Nov. 2009.
Tom Otterness. New York Times, 22 Sept. 2006. Web. 7 Nov. 2009.
