BORBAY

For a guy who has hand-delivered a portrait he created of the first lady, it’s interesting to gauge the effect words can have on a person. When professional artist and friend Pat Gallagher posted an essay written by student Mitchell Trzeciak, on Facebook – I had to share.

After the jump, Mitchell’s essay and a picture of the artist himself.

Being Watched (based on the painting above)

No matter when or where, someone is always watching, and everyone has a different view of this show we call life; what these people don’t know, is that they aren’t the only ones in the audience.  The title of this picture is “Being Watched,” and clearly as it depicts, we, as a society, are constantly being observed by something greater than meets the eye.
The four eyes are key to this piece, and all of the eyes have different aspects, like how one eye seems bloodshot, while another appears dry and stressed.  These traits are all symbolic of the many ways a person could view something.  The left eye, having a different view than the right eye, or even the upside down eye, could signify that everyone, or everything, can have a different perspective.
When first examining this picture I was drawn to the double-eyes in the middle of the piece, but quickly my attention was drawn outward to one more “view,” if you will.  It is apparent that this artist has a deeper message or thought he is trying to portray to us, but it is up to the individual to interpret it in a way they find fitting.
I interpreted the piece quite differently this time than the first time.  Perhaps the artist was trying to give the “Big Brother” effect.  The thought that occurs when one thinks that there is an all-powerful overseer in this world and you are never hidden from their daggered, ever stretching eyes.  Of course as you examine the picture you see the four eyes, but after a little bit of deeper thinking and visualizing you are able to see a man, backed away from the picture, to the left, watching over the eyes that are watching over you.  The artist uses the body figure or green jacket to start off the piece and then builds his picture outward from that outline.  He brings out the head shape with one of the more contrasting colors in the entire piece, the bright orange, which provides a minuscule distraction from the rest of the less attractive colors.  It’s almost as if he is trying to make it obvious that “Big Brother” is always watching.  It’s almost as if you have no privacy anymore.  If you’re not being watched by one person, you are by someone else, someone you may have never met or known.  There is an extremely strong connotation of paranoia in the painting.  This piece makes you value your privacy and realize that maybe it isn’t always a good thing to be constantly watched, like society suggests with cameras, cell phones, internet, and other things.  Maybe we aren’t as safe as we think with all of these things in place.