I chose the North Lake College Gallery for my Gallery Critical Review project. I found many interesting art works on display at the North Lake College Gallery. But, this particular piece of work caught my attention. This piece of art is called “Waltz of Roses”, by Christen Humphries from 2009. The artist chose to create the piece in watercolor gouache; my estimate of the size is 4 feet in length and 1½ feet in width. The light source is rather dispersed; it is shown on the objects in different directions. The artist used shadows to make the roses appear in 3-Dimensional, although the piece is 2D. The artist used red and blue as the primary colors and with a hint of yellow in the green stems of the rose. The brownish background made the piece appear to be a creation from the Renaissance period. It also made the edges of the paper appear to be burnt. The artist emphasized the two roses in the center of the artwork, which effected the time and motion of the artwork. The two roses are in the center of the artwork and are also in front of the blue ribbon, which made them seem to be dancing together as if they are in love with each other. As the artist has emphasized the two roses, she made a scale in which both the “love” roses are about 1 ½ to 2 times larger than the ‘smaller’ roses on the blue ribbon. The emphasis on the two “love” roses can be clearly viewed standing thirty eight feet away from the artwork. However, when I stood about three to five feet away from the artwork, I was distracted by the ‘small’ roses. The smaller roses created variety, which distracted me from the unity of the two main roses. The blue ribbon makes the work asymmetrical, since the folds are made in different ways. The number of smaller roses also made the art work asymmetrical as there is no balance of visual weight. There is no rhythm in the work; however, the colors are repeated for each of the small roses. Finally, there is much negative space in the work, which also pulled the viewer’s eye to the center to the blue ribbon and the two “love” roses.

In this work of art, I believe the artist is trying to convey a point that intimate love is like a pair of roses, dancing around each other. The blue ribbon represents waltz music to which the pair of roses is dancing. The artist used different shades of red for the small roses to differentiate and create prominence to the ‘love’ roses. The small roses look like a crowd of audiences that are watching the pair of ‘love’ red roses dancing to the waltz made by the waves of blue ribbon. The brown background made the painting feel like a ballroom, filled with an audience, or “the small roses” celebrating with dancing of the “love” roses for the classical music created by the waves of blue ribbon. The empty space also created the main stage for the “love” roses and enhanced the brown background in creating an environment of a special event in the ballroom.

The overall painting made me think of an event in a beautiful intimate ballroom. The “love” roses are dancing with the classical, blue “waltz music” ribbon, while the small roses are watching the “love” roses enjoy their intimate love, as mentioned previously. The painting also made me to think of Shakespearean romances. It also reminded me of fairy tales such as Cinderella that I read as a child. I think that Humphries did an excellent work in bringing the enjoyment of the classical waltz music through her strokes in painting the blue ribbon. I also believe that the artist should be applauded for engendering a work that reminds us of times when intimate love is mostly music that is soothing to ears.