VVILPARTANALYSIS

//**Sunset-1**// by Vachagan Ispiryan

ART ANALYSIS (ill change the title later) Imagine looking at a beautiful seaside sunset, the blend of hot and cool colors in the sky, the shimmering yellow sun, all framed by a cluster of gorgeous clouds. Most people would usually think of the words “pretty” or “beautiful”. I thought of the word “wristwatch”.

When I was walking through the Silvana Gallery of Fine Art & Crafts, I was looking around for a painting that relates to my ILP topic: wristwatches. Oddly enough, a painting of a sunset caught my eye. The mixed colors of red, orange, and gray grabbed my face and shoved it in the picture. The brushstrokes were so light and natural it seemed as if the whole thing came from a camera. I immediately knew that this was “the one”. This was the painting called //Sunset-1// by Vachagan Ispiryan. Made in 2010, it was a 23” x 39.5” oil painting showing a somewhat dim lighted scene of a seaside view. There were a few boats in the water and a rowboat on the shore. In the mid-ground, the sun shined a faded red light across the setting. The sun was small, but it was definitely the focal point. This is where my thoughts began to kick in.

I think what the artist is trying to portray is the importance of the sun. It is only a small fraction of the painting, yet it is the first thing that catches your eye. The sun is setting in this picture, yet it is still radiating its light. It is beginning to fade away, but it is the only source of light. The boats in the picture need the sun not only for sight, but it is also needed for the time of day and a sense of direction. Even the clouds need the sun for an appealing bright color. Without the light from the sun, the clouds would be completely dull and gray. It is only a small fraction of the painting, yet it is the first thing that catches your eye.

Most people wouldn’t understand how all of this would correlate with wristwatches in anyway at all, but I guess you could say the connection just “came to me”. Like the sun in //Sunset-1//, the wristwatch is also a small rock in a big pond, the pond being the technological world. The wristwatch is very tiny compared to a lot of other gadgets and gizmos, but it is certainly one of the most important inventions in the world. Not only has it helped mankind with keeping time for several centuries, its design and functions have become part many other technological advances. It gives support for other devices in the same way the sun gives light to all the other components of the painting.

Everyone knows that we need the sun in order to live, but we all know in our heads that we take it for granted. We just expect it to be there. The most we ever think of it is its brightness and how it looks. In //Sunset-1//, the sun is, according to commentators on an art website, “beautiful.” Many people think of wristwatches in the same way; they only care about how it looks. It is mostly worn for style nowadays, and its main purpose of time keeping is forgotten. Some people don’t even care to adjust the time on a watch anymore, which infuriates me! This is one of the reasons this painting speaks to me. It tries to remind the people who see it that many things have more than just looks; they have actual meaning.

Overall, //Sunset-1// is not only a great painting with amazing colors and beautiful scenery; it spoke to me with a message for people about the underappreciated things in life, which includes the wristwatch. In my opinion, I think Ispiryan is trying to revive those old sayings we hear every now and then: “The smallest things can make a big difference” and “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”