[Zechariah11]

Could you respond to my post #79? I'm sorry I couldn't get a better picture for you. You were so right in saying:

I also like the way the “stories” of his paintings are open-ended. Will her husband return from the sea? Will the fisherman make it back to his boat? When I spent an afternoon with this work, it felt like I could truly understand what was going through the minds of these two girls. Then I wanted to know what life would hold for them five or ten years later. It's not just art to look at from an objective distance but it brings you in and makes you wonder.

Thanks for the thread.

[Republicanprofessor]

Could you respond to my post #79?

I was really rushed yesterday and didn't have the time to sit and write as much as I would have liked.

I didn't respond to you in part because you were right on. In fact, I haven't heard such a good interpretation of that "cotton picking" work before. It is wonderful to be absorbed into any artworks and to really "get" what the artist intended.

Homer was one of the first artists to paint black people with dignity and without racial stereotypes. One of my favorites is The Gulf Stream. I often pair it with the Fog Warning shown earlier on this thread.

In this work, the ending is more pessimistic than in the Fog Warning. This was inspired by a water spout storm in the Carribbean (vs. New England for the other painting). The black man is cut adrift, unaware of the ship in the background, without any mast or oar or controls. This painting has been connected to Reconstruction. Yes, slaves were freed, but there were no schools, no banks, no infrastruction. And the KKK developed, like the sharks swarming here.

Homer's work is very powerful.