In One Glides, the elation and physical joy of flight is captured in a monochromatic piece. The figure in the painting glides through the air, its winged shape lifting its weight beyond the grasp of gravity, carried up and up by air currents under its wings. This painting visually depicts the way that an airplane or bird manages to fly, the aerodynamic shape of this figure mirroring the shape of birds of flight and airplanes built by mankind. A kite or hang glider also comes to mind when viewing this piece, its triangular shape a feature of any object or organism intended to fly through the air, carried along by air currents.
The choice of a monochromatic, dark color scheme for this piece is interesting. One might expect a field of blue to represent the sky, or a colorful figure of a kite or a scarlet songbird to represent flight. Yet the artist has chosen to depict flight in black and white, suggesting the essential and fundamental similarity of any and all objects and beings of flight. By making this glider abstract with no particular color, it takes on any shape and any color given to it by the viewer. In this way, One Glides becomes a representation of the abstract nature of flight, rather than the specific object or living thing that has experienced flight.
©1998-2009 Claretta Taylor Webb. All Rights Reserved
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