Museum Post

The above image was taken of A.W. Brody’s “Guardians of the Valley.”  It is located in the Rose Berry Alaska Art Gallery upstairs in the Museum of the North.

There is a lot going on in the painting that probably is not visible in the picture that I took.  From a distance, it looks like a painting of some grass and rocks.  But upon further inspection, there is a great amount of detail in every shape.  Each separate element of the picture fades into another.  The grass thins as it climbs up the mountains, as the land flattens out there are fewer rocks, and the mountains in the background are engulfed by the clouds.  This aspect creates a nice balance, as if the valley is in sync.

The “guardians” part of the painting takes a minute to recognize.  In both the grass and the mountainside there are distinct shapes and faces.  Even the valley itself points towards a distinct figure in the clouds that seems to be watching over the land.  To me, it seems like the shape in the cloud reigns supreme over the others.  This figure is higher up and larger than the others, and has the most distinguishable shape.  This was the first shape I saw, probably as a result of these factors.  If the painting was called “Guardian of the Valley,” then I could accept that the only figure is in the clouds.  But since the artist fairly bluntly hints that there are more shapes hidden, I keep looking for more.

As I looked at this painting, I kept noticing more levels within it.  The grass is not all one color, or a uniform length.  The rocks are sometimes in formations and other times they are randomly scattered.  The sky is dissected into two main pieces by the pillar of clouds that hosts (or is) the figure in the air.  I do not believe that this was just for the aesthetics of the landscape.  I think that everything in this painting has a meaning to it, possibly alluding to the title.

This piece was the most attention-capturing for me.  I love the use of shades in the grass and the brush strokes that make up the mountains.  Looking at this painting made me feel calm and peaceful.  I still do not really know if I perceive this piece correctly, but I really liked making an attempt.