David Rathman, Against a Crooked Sky
May 14 - June 20, 2009
For this week I chose David Rathman's "The Negotiator" (2009, watercolor on paper). I love the old west and what first drew me to Rathman's work besides the obvious cowboy allure was the medium. At first I thought that the works were perhaps photographs, but it turned out that they are just very beautifully, well done watercolors. There is mention of a "longing for a world of absolutes" in the press release which I definitely see in this work. I also see a comment being made on the way media (and specifically film, due to the fact that this body of work was created from film stills that were then manipulated to create vignettes) takes an event and twists it to leave out the "grey area" - an interesting reminder to us as an audience and as (un)informed citizens that the hero doesn't always wear a big shiny sheriff's badge...
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