While I know this was in the original "Drawing: A Broader Definition" gallery, my photographs of the one we found on our own did not transfer to my computer well and did not look great, so since these pictures came out much better, I thought I would post about this piece of art instead.
This is quite a small painting, made mainly with watercolors, gouage, which is a type of opaque watercolor, and inks. At first glance, I really noticed the contrast of colors, using the warmer reds, oranges and yellows, with a little black, but surrounding it on a mounted white background. Its exhibit is significant, because I feel the white draws your eyes in, when all the other pieces surrounding it were much larger and pronounced.
I observed it first before reading its title. The colors and layout are what struck me the most. After reading the title, I was able to see that the pelican was infact feeding her young, which at first I thought may be some sort of plant or something. It is extremely detailed, from the designs on the pelican and her young, and pays attention to the fact that it's so small, yet so full of detail. There was no "mood" so to speak that I immediately thought of, but it seems quite serene, just something you may see everyday. We also came to the conclusion that it may be part of a larger piece of work. What tipped us off to that was the fact that it's clearly cut and has boarders, but could have very well been part of something much larger.
After reading the description and it's mention of the pelican as a connection to Christ in medieval times, which I found extremely interesting, as I had never heard of that before. This also sort of confirmed my thought that it probably was part of a larger work, which may of had religious connotations as well.
While I don't have any pictures of what was directly next to this piece of art, I remember one of them being a very ancient pot, which had engravings of a pig and some sort of bird. The exhibit was infact all animals, and mostly birds were present in the art. Another thing that I noticed was that all the time frames of when the pieces of art were made was a very wide range. Our piece dated to the 19th century, but the pot as I mentioned earlier was thousands of years old. Shows that the same subjects are have been around since the beginning of art, so to speak. Aside from connecting to pieces at the museum that related to animals, it also has that religious connotation that it has going for it. It is also rather abstract, in the way it is presented and in the way it is painted, relying heavily on shape, like triangles but in a form much more free. While the museum had it properly exhibited with other drawings/paintings/forms of art all animal related, it could easily be seen in an exhibit with religious undertones that may not be immediately noticeable, like in the case of this. Also possibly medieval inspired art, even though this was from the United States.
There are many places in which this piece would fit, but in any gallery, it would catch my attention as being unique and simple, yet complex and symbolic.
-Nicole Labrecque
