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Visual Analysis

In: English and Literature

Submitted By nicolekelly6
Words 785
Pages 4
Nicole Kelly 10/13/15
Still ER…Elephant by Carl Cowden
Upon visiting the Scarfone Hartley Art Gallery , I came upon a piece by Carl Cowden III entitled Still ER…Elephant. He created the artwork in 1978 and it is done with acrylic on canvas. It is a relatively large artwork, approximately five feet tall and four feet wide. Carl Cowden’s artwork is visually appealing because of the way he utilized the principles of design as well as many different elements of art. Although in black in white, it caught my eye instantaneously because of the content within.
Because the artist selected canvas to portray his work, there was no unique texture to it. It was very smooth and sleek. The negative space and absence of light in the background allows the viewer to focus on the subject. The artist uses sketched lines (hatching) to create the objects depicted. The large elephant and ringleader are very realistic but the tiny humans are more abstracted. You can definitely tell that they are humans but they have no real features to depict race or nationality.
The first thing that I noticed was the very large elephant being tamed by a ringleader. With a closer look, you can then see that tiny humans are holding up the elephant. The tiny humans as well as the elephant are all on top of a world globe. It seems as though there is a dagger that has speared through it. A Band-Aid is pictured on top of the globe as well over the country of Africa. There are many dollar signs and bills, too.
Carl Cowden uses perspective and scale throughout the picture. Scale refers to the relationship between one object and another. The elephant is pictured very large as compared to the humans that are holding him up. This gives the observer information as to what is important and what is not. The humans are much smaller to depict that the elephant has much more of a significance. Although

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