Museum Response: Lisa Gray, Prom Night

The piece of art I chose was Lisa Gray's Prom Night. I, of course, saw a plethora of neat pieces of art. There were quite a few I considered choosing until I saw this one. It is an oil painting of what looks like a rodent wearing a prom dress. There aren't many hard lines and the colors blend together in a very ghostly, creepy fashion.

While our book mentions a "focal point" for me the focal point was not visual. While it is obvious that the first thing I looked at was the odd rodent creature since it is centered and is the main image, it wasn't really the most powerful aspect of the painting. My personal definition of "focal point" or at least my instinctual understanding of the phrase is what the most powerful, initial sense is provoked and about this painting it was definitely a feeling. That feeling was uncomfortable, slightly disturbed and even more unsettling, oddly fascinated.

When I saw the piece, I also read the little blurb about it to the side. It talked about how the meaning of this painting could possibly be connecting very human experiences (such a prom) and our inherent animalistic and often savage natures. This made me think of philosophy. I've been reading and inspired, but not necessarily following a lot of eastern religions and philosophies. The one that came to mind was the Hindu concept of human beings being "aspects" of Brahman, or the ultimate energy, being or whatever terminology one wants to use. Also, the Hindu concept of the body merely being a "chariot" for the true self. Then it also made me think of The Matrix. In the movie there is something called the "residual self image" or basically the way one sees themselves in the computer program which is our world. Now the reason these two random things pertain to this painting is that there was a sort of situation, or a small narrative that this painting made me think of.

In my mind I imagined a high school girl (probably being of the prom reference) but not the actual person herself. I imagined this girl as a stereotypical high school prom queen: stuck up, shallow and vain. But when her true self, not her imagined image of herself, was revealed it came out as this bony rodent in a dress and upon looking at her one would feel disturbed, uncomfortable and confused. Sort of like the movie Shallow Hal. People are visually represented as their personalities. This narrative continued to be intertwined with the philosophy, the Matrix, Shallow Hal and this prom queen. It made me wonder how far in depth I could go with this girls story and I realized it would become a narrative of questioning: How would she lead her life if she was forever stuck this way (as a rodent in a dress), would that change he true self and would that change her outer form as well? Then the narrative turns, twists and I consider the ghostly form of the painting...

 Would this be her form in death? The Hindu's believe in transmigration if one does not achieve enlightenment they come back until they do reach this ultimate enlightenment, so this wouldn't apply... Or if this was her form in death is the more of a Greek underworld sort of place?

For me personally a story starts with characters or it can be with images, but no matter the form of the object of inspiration, it forms itself with questions. If a piece of art makes me ask questions about it, or what it could mean it creates a narrative.