2. Compare.
Looking at the two images on the screen
you might think that they were both made
by the same artist.They are not. The image
on the left is by John James Audubon, and
the image on the right is by Walton Ford.
Audubon is famous for his documentation
of American birds during the early 19th
century. His work is extensive and his
methods might be somewhat surprising.
He killed most of his bird subjects first and
then used wires to prop
them up into lifelike poses.
Walton Ford is a self-described “enthusiast”
of Audubon and his style is heavily influ-
enced by him. There are drastic differenc-
es, however, if you look closely.
3. Details.
A self described “maximalist”, his paintings
often fill the canvas with detailed imagery
and multiple levels of storyline. He works
mainly in watercolor, but also uses oil, acryl-
ics, and pencil. While staying faithful to the
style of natural history books and field guides,
Ford paints on a much more enormous scale.
The scenes he paints are filled with drama,
“capturing moments when the natural order
changes, such as the last member of a species
struggling just before extinction.”
4. Details.
The work of Beatrice Aurora is a good ex-
ample of maximalism. It is the opposite of
minimalism or art which uses almost no imag-
ery in its design. Someone like Walton Ford or
Beatrice Aurora instead uses as much detail
as possible in their works of art.
5. Symbols.
“Each of Ford’s animal portraits doubles as a complex,
symbolic system, which the artist layers with clues, jokes,
and erudite lessons in colonial literature and folktales. The
scenes are often violent and full of a dark humor which
Ford appreciates. His life size birds and animals often
serve as metaphorical stand-ins for different cultures in
allegorical narratives. Extinction, greed, power, naturalism,
humor, the grotesque, are all repeating elements in Ford’s
work.”
Ford’s importance as an artist lies in his unique abil-
ity to use his painting to comment on the human con-
dition, the history of colonialism, and the continuing
impact of slavery and other forms of political oppres-
sion on today’s social and environmental landscape.
6. Symbols. For example, in this piece called “The Sensorium”, you can see some
of the monkeys fighting, one drinking wine, one glaring mysteriously
at the viewer, and all of them appear to be involved in some kind of
gluttony within a landscape that resembles the African countryside. Is
Ford saying something here about how European colonizers behaved?
Can you find any part of the scene that might be relevant to our Amer-
ican culture today?
7. Message. What could Ford be saying with this image called “Jack in his Death-
bed”? Does the erupting volcano int he background or the environ-
ment that the animal is in make you think of anything?
8. You try it.
Can you take a classic style that you’ve seen before,
maybe in a museum or a book, and reuse it to say some-
thing about your country, history, or an event that you
find interesting?
Think about shock value. What can you make that appears
to be normal, but when you look at the details is really out
of the ordinary?
Teach people something by rearranging something old.
