Parkes' Gargoyles Michael Parkes Painting Term Paper

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Will it be able to fly or glide, or float through the air. There is an unanswered question here. The girl is still blowing bubbles and has barely noticed what has happened yet. But two other gargoyles turn to watch this one gargoyle who has freed itself from its eternal bondage. One of these is screaming, as if he is afraid, or wants to join the one who has become free.

The young girl seems to be involved in what is before her, not the image of the gargoyle. But lying in the shadows is her teddy bear, an image of her babyhood, lying forgotten on the edge of the stone.

The gargoyles depicted in this painting are not the medieval norm. Though their heads are monstrous and have huge fangs, they are also half-human. The bodies are definitely human, though the back legs remind one of amphibians' legs, with huge muscles. There is a definite image depicted, perhaps from one of the specific literary works mentioned.

The viewer of the painting feels fear and exhilaration, fear because of the monsters, fear of falling, as the gargoyle leaps out into space, yet excitement over the newly found freedom, the chasing after bubbles and the symbolism in that. Bubbles are nebulous and may represent ideas. When someone dies for an idea, it is always exciting.

Yellow is the color of the dress that the young girl wears, a dress representing warmth and life, of waiting, of caution, of hazard. It is also the color that is often set against blue, as it is here, where the girl in the yellow dress is set against the blue sky. Blue is the color of eternity, of calm, of peace, of purity that keeps bad spirits away. It is a confident color, set against the girl's yellow dress that sometimes depicts cowardice.

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The stone in the painting is a cold beige, a natural color, however, with hard and dangerous qualities, as it stands so high in the sky. Nothing appears below the trio of gargoyles and the girl. They are set off against the sky with nothing below them but space. It is a frightening picture of being set free in a world where perhaps nothing waits for those who fly freely.

The composition of the painting is active, with a strong, almost horizontal diagonal motion, as the body of the gargoyle springs up and out, from its base on the left-hand side. It is a composition that depicts motion and activity going from a strong base into an empty area in the upper right-hand side. The vertical form of the girl is the only solid thing in the picture, with the exception of the base from which the gargoyle springs. Her body is a projection of that base, standing firmly against a dark blue sky.

This painting creates a new world where monsters and humans co-exist and interact with one another. It could be the real world of Michael Parkes......

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