Gallery Essay

While visiting the EXTRAORDINARY STILL LIFE exhibition, there were a lot of amazing artworks that caught my attention. But there are two of those artworks who stood out the most, the first one is "Vanitas, Women of Change, 2020" by Margaret Murphy. Murphy created this painting during the COVID-19 lockdown, just so she can keep her sane while the entire country was on lockdown. The Vanitas flower painting represents the names of the victims of police brutality, while also providing a tribute to the Black Lives Matter movement. Even though the painting represents police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement, Murphy also included current socio-political content on the painting. Both paintings are beautiful flowers in a vase that from a far it looks like a pretty flower and a vase, but when you get closer and read the name plus the background of the painting you get the real meaning of it. These two paintings are very powerful with their hidden meaning, representing current problems that are happening in today's society while doing it in a beautiful flower painting. I believe these two photos can related to our class themes of self-portraiture and identity, because it represents who is Murphy as a person and what are her beliefs. Murphy would not just paint anything without having a important meaning for herself, she wanted to show the world what she believed on and did it in her way by painting a flower in a vase. By combining both her likes and her beliefs in put it together in these paintings, reflects what her identity is and it shows a self portrait of herself. The quote "There is power in looking" in the Oppositional Gaze, connects with what Murphy is trying to show society with her painting, if you just admire the flower and the vase you are missing out on the whole meaning of the painting. Murphy wants people to deeply looking to the real meaning of her paintings so they can find what she is truly trying to show. “The art world was ready for something new, something beyond painting", I think this quote can describe how the importance of hidden messages in paintings to show the world that paintings are not only to look at, but to admire and discover the hidden meaning of the painting. "But being educated by photographs is not like being educated by older, more artisanal images" By Susan Sontag "Photographs are like memorie, each reflecting a collective expereince" By Carrie Mae Weems" I decided to recreate one of Margeret Murphy's paintings but with my personal twist. In the photo you can see a flower covered by some taco socks, a basketball, red skull, cards, remote, and a mug. Somebody looking from the outside might look at my picture and think that's just a photo of a flower with some personal belogins, but in reality just like Murphy I'm showing my indentity through the picture. The basketball, the red skull, the cards, and the remote represent my hobbies which is to watch sports, play cards, and play video games. The taco socks on top of the flower represent what favorite food is, while the mug represents what part of the world do I come from. I believe my selfie speaks to my indentity because it shows a piece of me and what I like to do and what I'm known for, the photo can say what are the things that people think about me and what I think about myself as a person. Murphy used a flower and a vase to show society a story, I'm using a flower and stand to show society my idetity and how I view myself.