United We Stand
... accurate to the size of real life figures giving one the illusion that these painted Americans are just a few ordinary people standing in front of one’s self. Looking at these life size figures, one can’t help but notice that they are virtually the only forms of which the painting is composed of. The Americans are spaciously arranged from tallest in back, to shortest in front, almost like a posed photograph. They aren’t interacting with each other, nor showing any emotion, but these Americans do seem as though they were occupied at one time: one woman has a grocery cart, one woman is holding a book, one is holding her purse, another a baby and the little girl is attached to a toy dog. This is an additional indication that these people may have been posed to create the simple composition for this painting. The thirteen Americans that are illustrated appear to be very natural and realistic, making this flat, two dimensional surface look three dimensional. One may begin to believe these people are actual because of the way Alfred Leslie adds shadows and detail to them. If one looks closely at their hands and faces, the shading and detail make them appear realistic and three dimensional. He also alludes one to believe the grocery cart exists in front of us by making it three dimensional and by foreshortening it. Instead of complicating things, he makes his subjects become one big focus by arranging the Americans to stand all on the same plane together. Alfred Leslie does this by overlapping the figures so close to one another, allowing one to believe that the Americans are standing together in one mass. But are they really standing on anything? One will see that other than the figures, everything is just a big blur of dark red paint. Because these people are standing in front of us, and we can see their shoes, we just assume the ground is there. When gathering any thirteen people together, there is a great probability that those thirteen people will not all be wearing the same colors. Likewise, in this painting, the people are wearing a variety of colors. Alfred Leslie uses two of the secondary colors, orange and green sparsely among the primary colors, red and blue, along with, of course, the neutral colors, brown and white. Now not all of these colors are pure, a lot of the reds used have different values: one man is wearing pure red, while a woman standing next to him is wearing a darker muted red, almost maroon. When looking at these colors, they seem to be put together randomly but with a second look one will notice that Alfred does use complementary colors: red, green and orange, blue, to achieve vivid coloristic contrasts that are pleasing to the viewer. However, if one looks even closer at arrangement of colors, one will see that just like the people there is a correlation between the colors he used and his message. Oddly enough, Alfred Leslie chooses the woman in the center to wear white and blue, while her baby she is holding to wear red, among all the other colors, again emphasizing America to be the center for all equality. The dramatically focused light, just like the painting’s size, accentuates Leslie’s subject matter. Because the light appears to be in front, shinning onto the Americans, there is no uncertainty and mystery about the figures. Everything is clear and easily observed, similar to the lighting in photographs. This lighting allows their features to be accented and not hidden or covered in shadows. Since th...