Pre Flight - Art

Pre Flight is a vibrant piece that depicts the energy potential of a flock of birds preparing for flight. The blue figures spread across the painting represent birds, their wings spread as though preparing for takeoff. These birds are abstract in form, their wings being their predominant feature. The heads and bodies of the birds are indistinct, but the instruments of their flight are enlarged and quite prominent. In this way, the form of the birds highlights the theme of flight in this painting.
The birds are clearly on the ground preparing for flight, as opposed to mid-flight, because of the colorful background against which they sit. The background is a patchwork of vibrant colors, not a uniform color, as the sky would be. In this way, farms, plots of land, buildings, and parking lots are shown to be the location of the birds, though this background is not depicted realistically as one would see this on the ground, but rather as a series of blocks, the way the birds view the ground from the sky. The painting takes the viewer into the birds’ perspective, allowing a new understanding of the phenomenon of birds taking flight.

©1998-2009 Claretta Taylor Webb. All Rights Reserved