God Bless America by Faith Ringgold (1964)


The painting that I chose to analyze was the painting, “God Bless America”. The painting was painted by Faith Ringgold in 1964. Faith Ringgold is an African American woman who painted this painting during the Civil Rights Movement where African Americans wanted equality and freedom. This painting was painted by using an oil on a 31 by 19-inch canvas. Faith used the colors Red, white, blue, and black throughout the painting. She also used lines and shapes. Most of the painting consists of a woman’s face and I think that woman was Faith, herself. I think she painted this painting to show how she felt during this time in history. Colored people didn’t have freedom and were treated awful. I think that Faith painted vertical lines from the top of the canvas to the bottom of the canvas because she felt that she was trapped just like a prisoner who is trapped in jail. The woman on the painting looks very sad and out of hope. The painting is a little patriotic in a way because she used the colors of the American flag. On the bottom right there is a star and that star might mean that we should all be united and live freely because we are one country and should stick as a whole. If you rotate the painting left it almost looks like the American flag’s reflection but with only one star and less stripes. I think the title relates to the painting because like I said previously that the star might mean that we should all be united and live freely as one, well there is a hand over the star and that might indicate God's hand protecting us as a whole. The title is, "God Bless America", so it makes sense to me.




Comments

  1. SierraMay 4, 2018 at 8:11 PM

    Hi Alondra, I really love your insight on this piece. I find it to be a very compelling work of art, and it truly tells a story. The red white and blue aspect helps convey the American feel to the piece and the stripes do look a lot like the bars of a jail cell. I like how you explained the star, I found that to be really interesting.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"One Day" By: Matisyahu

Image
The song I chose to analyze was the song, “One Day” by Matisyahu. I chose this song because it’s a song that I have known for many years and I feel that the lyrics have a strong meaning behind them. The song doesn’t have an actual story behind it, but it does talk about war. The themes that the song addresses are peace and unity. In the first and second stanza of the song Matisyahu sings, that he prays that God doesn’t let him die because he is has a purpose and that purpose is to help bring peace to the world. He also sings that one day there will be peace and no war, that children will get to play without fearing the bad. In the third stanza he sings, that even though there is war and there is a winner, in reality everybody loses because people are killed. The fourth, fifth, and sixth stanza say the same things as the first two stanzas, it’s just repeated. In the seventh stanza he sings, that one day there won’t be violence and there will be freedom. The rest of the stanzas a
Read more

"War Is Never Over" By: Cecil L. Harrison

Image
The poem I chose to give an explanation for is, “War Is Never Over” by Cecil L. Harrison. I think that the title for this poem is very important because it says what the poem is going to be about. Every stanza’s first line from the poem begins with, “War is never over” and each gives a different explanation to back it up. In the first stanza Cecil explained that even though a war is over physically the soldiers who fought in it will keep the memories and never forget what they experienced. In the second stanza Cecil explained that even though soldiers go home to remember that their memory will always have war in it. In the third stanza Cecil brings back the veterans who fought in the Vietnam war and she explains that those are the soldiers who really know that war is never over mentally and when they see other wars it just gives them flashbacks of the terrible experience they went through themselves. In the fourth stanza Cecil puts himself into the poem explaining that he exper
Read more

Famine in Somalia by James Nachtwey 1992

Image
Picture URL: https://www.google.com/search?q=famine+in+somalia+james+nachtwey+1992&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj8wvOc9anaAhVp7YMKHeBcCFoQ_AUICigB&biw=1951&bih=930#imgrc=rVKmgOqWdhiWXM : The photograph that I chose to analyze was “Famine in Somalia” by James Nachtwey. In 1992 the price for food increased in Somalia and Somalia no longer was getting food from their food sources. Nachtwey, wasn’t one to get assigned to capture pictures for the Famine in Somalia. He decided to go on his own receiving support from the International Committee of the Red Cross. Nachtwey captured the image above of the two starving people along with many other images. The image was posted on the cover of the magazine, “New York Times” and then became a big hit. After the photograph was posted in the cover of that magazine many people started taking action. This was considered a huge operation next to the one from WWII. This image is very sad. There is a starving lady
Read more