Year of the City Event 3

“Urban Visions” is the title of the Year of the City display that could have been found in the art gallery of the Andrew White Student center. In this exhibit was the work of a few different artists whose goals were to capture images pertaining to Baltimore and Year of the City. All of the artists’ works were presented well, but I felt that the artist that best captured the theme of “Urban Visions” in their work was Ellis Marsalis, III (tp. Luce).

Marsalis’ photographed various people in the city. The photographs included a piece titled “Fished Boy” which depicted a young boy against a brick wall. After studying the piece and reading the artist’s statement, I began to really see the artist’s point of view. In the statement, the artist wrote about how every person has a story. I particularly noticed this aspect in “Fished Boy.” In this image, the boy’s eyes are wide and full of emotion. I saw fear, shyness, curiosity, confusion, and willingness in his eyes. The boy’s eyes are what really struck me when I first looked at the image. After a second viewing, I noticed all of the emotion in the boy’s eyes. I interpreted this as telling part of the boy’s story. Every person has a unique story. Each person’s life is full of experiences that only they can call their own. This image helped to portray this idea. Seeing the different emotions in the boy’s eyes helps the viewer to realize that this boy and all people have a story to tell.

I correlated this piece with the poem “Fern Hill” by Dylan Thomas. In this poem, Thomas writes of the blissful innocence of childhood. The image captures the innocence of the boy. The fact that he is without a shirt in the photograph is a reminder of how children run around without caring about how they are dressed or what they look like. The emotions in the boy’s eyes also portray innocence. I saw fear and curiosity in his eyes. Most children have some sort of fear, but they are curious about the world around them and often envelop themselves into a world of imagination, similar to the pretend games and other ideas expressed in “Fern Hill.”

Langston Hughes’ “Theme for English B” also exemplifies the idea of identity in individuals. The assignment given to the speaker by the instructor in the poem is to write a page about him. Throughout the poem, the speaker begins to better articulate who he is and how he is different from the instructor and other people. Similarly, Marsalis’ photographs showed how every person is unique.

Lastly, the art exhibit reminded me of Barbara Hamby’s “Ode to American English.” Barbara Hamby uses different examples to portray the individual aspects of the United States. The speaker talks about how America is a diverse culture that is unrefined but unique. The personality of America has a variety not found in France or other sophisticated European countries. She describes America as a culmination of many cultures that is written in a form to which many people can relate. This individualist attitude of the poem is seen in Marsalis’ photographs. Like the poem, the pictures show an appreciation for culture and diversity.