Observation 11: Field Trip to Lee Gallery

I don't remember the artist's name or what his pieces were called, but I remember being drawn to them. The art that I was interested in was the series of crow prints because we learned from our guide that the artist originally started with photographing roadkill and then noticed that birds of some sort (usually crows) were always present in his picture. I think it is really interesting that the artist started with an initial idea but was inspired by his observations and turned his concept to a whole new direction. The piece in particular that I focused on was one of a single, larger crow that was entwined in barbed wire. Our guide explained to us that the artist created this piece as an expression of his feelings about the current war in Iraq. When I looked at the piece, I thought about what the artist was trying to portray with his piece and formed my own message. I took the crow to represent Iraq, more specifically the innocent people in Iraq struggling against their corrupt Government. Their government is represented by the barbed wire which is trapping innocent people and the stars around the crow are a symbol of America who are trying to free them. The crow however, is so entangled in the barbed wire because the citizens are torn as to who they should side with during this war. The crow in general is a symbol of death; it is black and always present when something has died in nature and so it represents the gloom of the entire situation.