Introduction
The Homeless Series projects the hostile environments encountered by people in urban streets. The film showcases the struggles of lacking a house; and uses Steve Huff’s characters to illuminate the rising homelessness in Boston. The series uses sympathetic images to show the hurdles faced by Huff and other individuals having no room to call home. The film director uses dark images to symbolize the challenges in such settings. The unending pains of seeking refuge in other people’s houses prompted artists to draw and make a painting of the odd life presented in the movie’s scripts. In this case, the analysis borrows information from the Grossman Gallery exhibitions to interpret the format, composition, color, lines and objects of the Melissa Shook painting.
Biography of the Artist
The photograph’s analysis starts with assessing the artist’s biographical information. The photographic work of Melissa Shook in a Lonely Home was created by Elizabeth Hammer Munemura. She was born on March 7, 1962, in Indonesia. The individual is an Asian Art Historian with great knowledge of artwork analysis. Munemura is an educator at Yale University, where she offers fine art services. Munemura resides in New York and conducts business across the U.S. as a fine arts consultant. She is known for effective business negotiations in the corporate world. Munemura’s achievements and awards are recorded in the Metropolitan Museum of Art history book. She received the award of the year as an associate museum educator in 2017 and was highly appreciated by the U.S. tourism industry.
Stylistic Analysis
Format
The image showcases a woman standing in the center of a room with several objects surrounding her. The Picture contains artificial flowers on the woman’s right hand, and the decorations convey a significant image of loneliness. The presentation of the idea of malnourished flowers in the room depicts the state of homelessness in the series. Shook did not participate in the film as a cast; however, she was involved in the movie’s direction. The photograph was taken behind the scenes to familiarize the actors and actresses involved in the script with the expected themes and settings of the cinema. In addition, the room is disorganized, portraying the connection of homelessness to Melissa’s current mental situation. The main character in the image has room to call home; however, she does not look happy in her confinement. Painting adopts artistic features of symbolism to predict the conditions of particular environments (Dal Fovo et al., 312). Similarly, the artist’s design to present a disarranged room communicates the mental challenges of Melissa.
The sizes of photographs matter in arts and design classes. Munemura used a sizeable amount of material to photograph Melissa Shook in a Lonely Home. The Picture’s properties supported the visibility and containment of all features presented by the artist. The image has a height and width of 11.1 cm by 11.1 cm (Munemura 2). The square-sized structure of Munemura’s work hosted a single chair, a coffee table, a computer, a bed, and well-placed curtains. The stuffed room illustrates the challenges faced by Steve Huff in the cold and hostile street. The character has to reside under the city’s structures because he has no place to call home. At the same time, Munemura fixes every piece of furniture and equipment in Shook’s single room to question the impact of homeless on the series’ audience. The size of the image drives the tension in its viewers; it shows that the feeling of homelessness can cause depression. For instance, Shook could not choose between arranging her house or hosting the abandoned individuals in her room. The photograph’s size stresses the tension; only homeless people feel the danger of lacking a house.
Composition
The composition of the photograph is complex. The layout of objects in the frame is not accidental; instead, Munemura uses her expertise to denounce her stance on the effects of homelessness. Shook looks tired in the photograph; neither can she sit on the couch nor sleep on the bed because her room is messy. She is stranded on the next move; the art is complex. The repetitive forms of variety in the symmetrical dominance of other objects and themes in the artwork make Melissa Shook in a Lonely Home crowded. The placement of the objects on other materials showcases the consistency of Munemura in designing the art’s composition. The dissolute rhythm attained in the photograph occurred due to Munemura’s choices to incorporate geometry in the alignment of objects across the room.
Color
The light and color effects in Melissa Shook in a Lonely Home photograph expose the art’s viewers to Munemura’s creativity. The color ranges in the object are exciting; the artist implemented watercolors, acrylics, and pastels to achieve the quality of work depicted in Figure 1. The colors used in the object facilitated the distribution of the saturation of the black and white images throughout the photograph (Munemura 3). The Pastel color in Melissa Shook in a Lonely Home associate the art with a peaceful vibe and calming tone. Even though the colors used in the work are black, the pastel effects communicate the tense theme of loneliness.
Lines
The lines in the image are unclear; they are blurred, angular, and static for observation. The curtains are placed in a position that draws the line between events happening inside and outside the room. The photograph depicted the objects within Shook’s surroundings, not events and actions outside her house. The loneliness in the room is depicted by the blurred line separating the house from the external environment. The light outside creates a state of comparison to the darkness in Shook’s room. Huff’s neglect in the Homeless Series is visible from Munemura’s preferences in image formulation. The line properties signify the relations between reality and fantasy.
Historical Context of the Object
The image is printed on a gelatin silver print to present the object’s historical context. The Homeless Series depicts the ancient American challenges of loneliness in the nation’s major streets. The American civil war of 1861 to 1865 motivated the author of the art to design the single room as it appears. Homelessness is a natural state that originates from uncontrolled situations. For instance, the side effects of the war led many Americans to run away from their original homes. Munemura symbolically arranged the room in a squared frame to showcase loneliness’s impacts. The story in the photograph has been developed from Steve Huff’s character as a loner in the Homeless Series.
Conclusion
The Melissa Shook in a Lonely Home is an 11.1 cm x 1.11 cm photograph drafted by Munemura. The image depicts the theme of loneliness presented in the Homeless Series. The drafting of the photograph incorporated various artistic creativities and features. However, the artwork analysis utilized the primary elements to assess its viability to the course readings. The photograph is appealing because it uses pastel coloring to obtain blurred images of objects in Shook’s single room. Munemura’s image showcased a varying relationship between the photo and the theme of loneliness through the enhanced application of color, light, and composition
Works Cited
Dal Fovo, Alice, et al. “Non-Invasive Mapping Methods for Pigments Analysis of Roman Mural Paintings.” Journal of Cultural Heritage, vol. 43, no. 9, 2020, pp. 311–18, Web.
Munemura, Elizabeth, H. “Melissa Shook: Early Self Portraits 1972-1973.” Asia Week New York, 2022, Web.