Dr. King Charter School (painting installed at 1617 Caffin ave in the Lower Ninth Ward)
http://drkingcharterschool.org/
President Obama's visit to New Orleans
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-barack-obama-visit-orleans-survey-katrina-recovery/story?id=8830279
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/10/states_senators_want_more_than.html
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/10/balloon_boy_bumps_barack_obama.html
http://wecouldbefamous.blogspot.com/2009/10/president-obamas-visit-to-new-orleans.html
http://www.wdsu.com/news/21305691/detail.html
http://www.wdsu.com/video/21308470/index.html
http://blog.al.com/live/2009/10/president_obama_arrives_in_new.html
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/15/obama.new.orleans/index.html
This did not seem like your usual guerilla art. Hours remained before President Obama arrived in New Orleans, and barricades already blocked roads leading to the Lower Ninth Ward. The Dr. King Charter School bustled with anticipation of President Obama’s visit, and, as much as the school’s administration tried to stress normalcy, there was no way for these school children to feel like this day was an ordinary day. Clues emblematic of the extraordinary seemed to be everywhere: the sky, for example, was unblemished by any clouds, just sunny cerulean blue above us. The most notable element of the exciting moment was not the prepared, polished school awaiting an important visitor but rather its neighboring abandoned building expecting no visitors. A giant canvas stretched across its vacant doors caught my eye and the attention of school children piling up in front of it, stopping to stare and examine an unexpected artwork. The crowd of children caused the uninhabited structure to resemble a pre-Katrina world where children used to gather outside its entryway this time of morning.
The epic size of this painting made it hard to overlook and visible across four lanes of traffic. The expansive amounts of color each created a space of their own, while feeling entirely new in juxtaposition. From a distance, detail became subordinate to color. A deep satin navy blue figure emerged from the bottom of thirty square feet of yellow ochre. Traditional yellow is a warm color, signifying happiness and joy. Paler yellows are worn in the United States, in the form of ribbons, in remembrance of veterans and to welcome home soldiers from war. But this color was not simply about happiness, did not feel chipper, and looked deliberate. The yellows mixed with greens or browns creating an earthy and Fall-associated palette were closer to this amber color. Unlike the more cheerful yellows, this ochre is an especially rich, warm shade of yellow that has references most strongly to what is earthy and ultimately feminine. This distinctly motherly, nurturing variation of yellow saturated two thirds of the canvas.
The value difference of the medium yellow and the dark blue generated a stark contrast for the navy blue figure. Dark blue sometimes takes on the symbolism of black. But this navy was not black, and could not have been mistaken for black (Black and yellow connote danger and are associated with warning signs, which was not the feeling taking place). Traditional blue is the favorite color of both men and women, and because it is around us all the time, blue rarely feels special or out of the ordinary. This particular blue exuded a satiny deep navy tone. Darker blues symbolize intelligence, stability, and unity. More specifically, the color navy is associated with confidence, power, authority, and importance. More than a striking combination, this juxtaposition signaled the merging of both symbolisms: an era when motherly and feminine is authority, importance, and intelligence. Moving closer to the painting, Michelle Obama’s portrait came into focus.
A halo of just a slightly lighter yellow drew attention to her face. The composition’s centered pyramid-like shape reinforces ideas of stability, the pyramid being a very strong, enduring, and balanced structure. The top of pyramid is understood to represent the sun, from which the rays of sunlight are emitted. The apex of the pyramidal shape in the painting is Michelle Obama’s head, proposing that her aura is as inspiring and bright as the sun itself. Her head situated the place of most importance, not only the tip of the pyramid but also the very focal point of the composition. Michelle Obama’s intellect took the forefront of importance. Within the realms of her head, her face is given great attention from the artist. But the painter did not use detail on every part of her face or every part of the painting. Areas of detail stood out against areas that were not given attention. There was no detailing on her dress or jewels. Her items of status were deliberately down-played, and instead the investment happened exclusively on her skin and her eyes. The brushwork detailing her flesh signified that her race is worthy of the viewer’s attention. The most notable detail was fixated on Michelle Obama’s eyes, showing the artist’s emphasis on the soul and essential essence of the subject matter.
Getting even closer to the painting, I realized it was constructed with atypical materials: spray paint, house paint and a tarp (in place of canvas). These are common materials, not prestigious utensils or foreign Academy processes, but rather everyday materials that the average American certainly has access to and probably interacts with on a semi-regular basis. This painting was not a conventional, painted-in-an-Academy oil on panel piece of artwork. Because the materials used are not unique to artists, the personality of the painting read as more approachable and less precious. Viewers were invited to engage the painting, just as the school children felt welcomed to get up close. It was not in a frame; this work did not belong behind glass or in a museum or even in a gallery. All these details of construction accumulated to the cue viewers that this painting was not meant to be archival, and that would be to miss the point. This portrait of Michelle Obama has been made for the here and now, created for a specific moment in a specific place. Having the painting assembled on-site, quickly stapled to the falling down plywood, and seemingly painted in a fury of production created a feeling of immediacy that made everyone around it more aware of the current moment taking place, a moment that felt special to everyone experiencing it.
Because this painting was placed in the view of the specific visitors when they were visiting, it seemed that there was an obvious audience: the Obama team. However, think about what the meat of the formal decisions suggested. This painting was putting Michelle Obama at the apex, using her as the culminating example, of where femininity, motherhood, intellect, authority, race, and confidence all united to form the modern version of ancient and eternal power. Because I doubt President Barack Obama has to be convinced of his wife’s intellect, etc. (furthermore, if any American needs to be informed of Michelle Obama’s power), there had to be something else at play. This painting was a nuanced way to visually interpret what everyone viewing the painting already knows and accepts, but unlike most guerilla art, this painting convinced me to keep looking and to look deeper. Though the artist’s choices of color were aesthetically pleasing and insightful, and though Michelle Obama looked beautiful in her portrait, I thought about what the portrait meant to persuade people about.
Who was this painting speaking to was the question that kept me thinking. Though it could have been a half-executed shot at self-promotion or stardom, or maybe an attempted statement of self-worth, this was not likely the case considering the deliberate absence of the artist. There was not a signature, no sign that this was done by just one person. In fact, it could have been painted by a group of artists. The only clue that it was not done by a group of artists was the cohesive mark-marking. Though the artist was anonymous, it was important that an artist was present. Had this been a photograph, it would have been easy to become detached from the fact that a living, breathing human being labored to create this. As a viewer, it is easy to neglect the labor of a photographer when a camera “took” the image. But in this painting, there was not way to forget the act of the artist. The brushstroke and painterly quality of the piece spoke to an intensity and determination of the artist, whoever he or she was.
The combination of non-standard materials and the lack of concern with a polished quality led viewers to conclude that this painting was not about craftsmanship or polish. It was not a painting about the artist’s ability to paint. While the artist’s mark was fast, it was not aggressive. And though marks were filled with sensitivity and care, they were not meant to communicate skill. Scale came into account because, up close, I understood the difficulty with scale is all of its tremendous obstacles (transportation, cost of materials, production). The fact that typical guerilla art does not attempt the ambitious accentuated the passion present in this piece. The lack of professionalism in the painting’s finish suggested that this painting did not need formal analysis but rather encouraged viewers to experience it and was intended to be felt. Its monumental scale and large use of color was meant to be overwhelming, evoking the emotions already present in the current moment.
