Daniel Hicks

Dr. Julie Hicks

LBST 1105

September 26th, 2014

Response to Uptown UNC Charlotte Gallery

The Uptown UNC Charlotte Art gallery is in a small, but beautiful location.

The room itself is full of natural light coming from the large windows filling the wall

on the far side of the room. Also, the floor is made of red bricks, giving it a certain

vintage look and texture, along with a nice symmetry, that contrasted and

highlighted the free and undulating lines in the art. The gallery had a couple dozen

paintings, all with the theme “CHROMA: lyrical lines and compulsive color”. The

gallery space had white walls, with most of the art hanging on them, but with some

art on “islands” in the middle of the room. The room itself was somewhat tucked

away and, if I remember correctly, almost under a set of stairs. The ceiling was

sloping upward, giving me the impression that the gallery was somewhat like an

attic. It was as though the art was hidden away in an afterthought of a room needing

to be discovered. For these reasons, I felt that the gallery space was beautiful and

conducive to effective viewing.

The piece that I chose was the painting called “Desert”. This piece is

multifaceted and beautiful, with layers upon layers of nuance and meaning.

Compared to the other pieces in the room, I felt that this one in particular spoke to

me. Upon first glance, I wasn’t sure what I saw in the painting. But, as I read the title

and began to look more closely, I saw a meaningful scene that was highly interesting

and thought provoking. This is not to say, however, that a piece’s value can be

summed up solely by what it resembles. On the contrary, abstract art is often just as

much about the process the artist used to make the piece. Meaning, in essence, that

the journey that is taken with the piece is more important than the final destination

of it. I feel that this piece derives beauty from both sources. While it does resemble a

real- life scene, it also seems to highlight the movements of the artist’s brush, and

the creativity that was undoubtedly necessary to create it. I chose “Desert” based

upon a single criterion: could I live with it. Students were asked to select a piece

based on whether or not we would buy the piece to put up in our homes and be

willing to see it every day. From my perspective, “Desert” was the only piece in the

gallery that I felt I could live with because of its depth of meaning. To me, the

painting resembles a windowsill. It

is the perspective of someone

looking out on what lies beyond his

or her own comfortable life.

Directly in front of the window is a

dry and barren landscape,

complete with spiny shrubs that

have long been withering away.

Beyond the barren landscape,

there is beautiful, sunny green land

that contrasts with it. The green

land seems to call out the viewer, embodying the timeless “grass is greener…” adage.

Personally, this piece represents the way that circumstance can often put us in a

lonely and desolate place that seems hopeless. Usually that place truly is hopeless,

but the beautiful thing about life, and this painting, is that beyond the hopelessness

and desolation, there is something more that be clung to. Despite any circumstances,

time marches ceaselessly on, and, if nothing else, tomorrow will still come.

Culturally, I feel that this painting speaks to the idea that people in our

society are often content to stay within their comfort zone and never improve

themselves. The person behind the windowsill is sitting in his or her house simply

looking out, he or she sees the green land in the distance and probably thinks, “If

only it wasn’t for that huge desert I’d go right over there”. The painting relates to a

problem people often face. Many of us are not up for the challenge that stands

between our goals and ourselves. If we are never willing to face the challenge, then

those goals will go unreached. By extension, the painting seems to hint at the reality

that most goals that come without any significant challenge or obstacle may not

even be worth pursuing.

In conclusion, “Desert” is certainly a painting of “brilliant gestures of vibrant

color and subtle markings”. It is full of meaning, beauty, and life. This type of

painting is important because of its depth of meaning and the way that it can make a

viewer have a real reaction and response to art.