I was awe-struck. The ceiling stretched fifteen feet above my head and it had to be as long as half a football field. Upon the walls were cream-colored paint and the ceiling was stenciled with red and orange spirals. After a morning of exploring our beautiful Penn State Campus, I found myself standing in the Humanities Reading Room on the second floor of the Paterno side of the library. The grand room was perfectly symmetrical. To my right were fourteen large wooden tables adorned with bright green overhead lamps. An identical scene was laid out to my left. At each table, students sat with laptops and ear-buds, staring at their computers and textbooks with intense concentration. The atmosphere was calm and the only noises were that of hushed voices and the flipping of crisp new book pages. In the center of the room, by the entrance, yellow, green, and red lounge chairs lined either side of the wall. Their softness was evident as each chair held sleeping students, exhausted from a late night out. Along the walls surrounding the entire room were beautiful dark wooden bookcases filled with volumes upon volumes of reference books. Everything about this room was scholarly, and yet the air was warm and comforting like a small common room. This place was a studier’s heaven.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Working Horse, Hauling
Kate Javens
Working Horse, Hauling, 1994
Oil on Canvas
It hit me as I walked up the stairs to the second floor. An enormous oil painting of a horse, muted brown and black colors on an off-white canvas, in an intense pose. The horse was struggling to haul a heavy load and the reigns hindered his attempt to step forward. His neck was strained forward and his eyes cast downward in shadow. The title of the painting was “Working Horse, Hauling” by Kate Javens.
Although the painting was created recently in 1994, it seems to belong a time period long ago when animals were used for farming. When I gazed at this massive oil painting I immediately saw the image of a horse working in the fields during the Civil War Era. I pictured plantations in the deep south of the United States, large farmland, and slaves working in the fields. The horse must belong to the owner of the land, who is therefore the horse’s master. Using subtle yet evident artistic techniques, the piece converses well within the moment it is portrayed. When you first glimpse at the picture you’ll notice that the horse is trying to move forward because is front left leg is up while his hind legs are pushing back on the ground. Looking more closely, his pain and frustration becomes more obvious from his strained neck leaning forward and his downcast face. Javens creates an even deeper conversation with the piece by accentuating the muscles in the horse to represent hard work and the hauling he is doing. Also, his dark and shadowed face creates a shameful expression for the horse. Putting all of these details together, I believe the painting makes a bold statement about the feelings of animals and how they are closely related to human feelings and struggles.
Through the artist’s use of washed color, and the horses position and body language, the piece really evoked a strong emotional reaction from myself as I believe it would for others. When I looked at the painting, the life size horse immediately caught my attention. His strained neck and downcast head relate the human feelings of pain and shame. Because I am human and have experienced those same feelings, I was empathetic towards the animal. His pain and struggle was so evident and I believe in helping animals, I immediately felt sympathy for the horse and felt helpless as I looked at the painting. For me personally, all I wanted to do was relieve the animal of its pain.
Kate Javens, the artist of this piece, is a very diverse woman who was born Missouri and has lived in Japan, Mexico, Philadelphia and New York. Most interesting, however, is that she is a graduate of Penn State University. She is a recipient both of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Painting Fellowship and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts Disciplinary Winner in Painting and is a three-time McDowell Fellow. Places where her work is displayed includes the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Palmer Museum of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum. Many of her works are related to paintings of individual animals and the exact moment of time they are depicted in (http://marciawoodgallery.blogspot.com/2008/02/kate-javens-named-for.html).
I believe the piece makes the argument that animals are a great deal more alike to humans than we think and they experience passing moments just as we do. Although they cannot communicate through our language, it is still very evident the way they are feeling and Javens states that through her realistic painting. The tensed muscles of the horse and its struggle to haul the heavy load can easily be replaced with a human in the same dilemma. This claim is very persuasive due to such a realistic painting that embodies human feelings in this life-size animal that is usually characterized as a gentle being.
Now normally, I am not a museum goer. Yes, I have been to some museums before, however, it would not be my first choice of entertainment. This was my first visit to the Palmer and I was very impressed by it. They had all different types of sculptures, paintings, and photographs from every era. Whether you enjoyed antique art or contemporary art, there was something there for you. As I was walking around the Palmer on Wednesday, I felt very relaxed and soothed by the atmosphere in the building. Looking at art is a calming experience because it’s just you and the painting. I would definitely go back whenever I felt like I needed to escape reality and step into another world: the world of art.
Working Horse, Hauling, 1994
Oil on Canvas
It hit me as I walked up the stairs to the second floor. An enormous oil painting of a horse, muted brown and black colors on an off-white canvas, in an intense pose. The horse was struggling to haul a heavy load and the reigns hindered his attempt to step forward. His neck was strained forward and his eyes cast downward in shadow. The title of the painting was “Working Horse, Hauling” by Kate Javens.
Although the painting was created recently in 1994, it seems to belong a time period long ago when animals were used for farming. When I gazed at this massive oil painting I immediately saw the image of a horse working in the fields during the Civil War Era. I pictured plantations in the deep south of the United States, large farmland, and slaves working in the fields. The horse must belong to the owner of the land, who is therefore the horse’s master. Using subtle yet evident artistic techniques, the piece converses well within the moment it is portrayed. When you first glimpse at the picture you’ll notice that the horse is trying to move forward because is front left leg is up while his hind legs are pushing back on the ground. Looking more closely, his pain and frustration becomes more obvious from his strained neck leaning forward and his downcast face. Javens creates an even deeper conversation with the piece by accentuating the muscles in the horse to represent hard work and the hauling he is doing. Also, his dark and shadowed face creates a shameful expression for the horse. Putting all of these details together, I believe the painting makes a bold statement about the feelings of animals and how they are closely related to human feelings and struggles.
Through the artist’s use of washed color, and the horses position and body language, the piece really evoked a strong emotional reaction from myself as I believe it would for others. When I looked at the painting, the life size horse immediately caught my attention. His strained neck and downcast head relate the human feelings of pain and shame. Because I am human and have experienced those same feelings, I was empathetic towards the animal. His pain and struggle was so evident and I believe in helping animals, I immediately felt sympathy for the horse and felt helpless as I looked at the painting. For me personally, all I wanted to do was relieve the animal of its pain.
Kate Javens, the artist of this piece, is a very diverse woman who was born Missouri and has lived in Japan, Mexico, Philadelphia and New York. Most interesting, however, is that she is a graduate of Penn State University. She is a recipient both of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Painting Fellowship and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts Disciplinary Winner in Painting and is a three-time McDowell Fellow. Places where her work is displayed includes the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Palmer Museum of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum. Many of her works are related to paintings of individual animals and the exact moment of time they are depicted in (http://marciawoodgallery.blogspot.com/2008/02/kate-javens-named-for.html).
I believe the piece makes the argument that animals are a great deal more alike to humans than we think and they experience passing moments just as we do. Although they cannot communicate through our language, it is still very evident the way they are feeling and Javens states that through her realistic painting. The tensed muscles of the horse and its struggle to haul the heavy load can easily be replaced with a human in the same dilemma. This claim is very persuasive due to such a realistic painting that embodies human feelings in this life-size animal that is usually characterized as a gentle being.
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