Carrie Mae Weem Analysis

Carrie Mae Weems

Carrie Mae Weems is female, black artist. She was born April 20, 1953 in Portland, Oregon. She started her art career in the 1980s and continues to be a part of art in present day. She received her B.A from California Institute of the Arts and has her Masters in Fine Arts from University of California. She uses different types of art mediums as well ranging from films to fabric. Though she is better known for her photography. Carrie Mae Weems focuses her art around culture, gender, and identity most often centered around the struggle of African Americans. She in fascinated by the human body, particularly the movement and the way it works. She uses her own body at times in her own artwork to show her interest.

Weems being black

Weems captures the simplicity of each person but at the same time the color and the way she positioned the people gives it complexity. In this artwork of Weems there are young men and women and older women and men. The images in the artwork have high saturation and are mid to low values. The use of these colors turns the images into jewels. The high saturation of the colors add more interest and the mid to low value gives it softness. Each of the people in the images are smiling faintly giving them an innocent and happy look. The colors Weems made the images into adds to the appealing look the Africans are giving off to the

This artwork contains images of African men and women. All the images are monochromatic. Weems uses color and shapes to emphasis the events and to the round images a more focused and directed look. The red and blue contrasts gives the blue images a coolness and the red images a harshness.

The first and last images are the same but mirrored. They have a medium saturation of blue but high and low value. This gives these images a sensitive and sad tone. The first and last image are rectangles in a square frame. The first is facing towards the right and has the caption, “From Here I saw What Happened”. This starts the artwork. The other images that follow are also monochromatic but of the color red. The color red gives the images a harsher appearance and gives the viewers a deep feeling of unsettling pain. These images are rectangles as well but in a circular frame.

A specific image that shows the impact of Carrie Mae Weems selection is the image of the men looking down. Its captioned “For Your Names You Took Hope and Humble”. This title and the image of 4 men gathered around, slouching and looking down gives them a humble look. The men look to be in thought and as though they are reminiscing the past. This gives them a hopeful