Looking at Angela “Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another,” Toni Morrison. Author, Morrison, refers to the self in the idea that once someone is to be free, they must regain control of themselves. In other words, it is important to catch yourself. This idea can be seen in Robert Tarbell’s portrait named Angela. This portrait is smoke on canvas that is 60” by 40” created back in 2016. Angela resembles a black and white photograph of a beautiful young woman with much detail accompanied by a blur and/or smudge in the bottom right corner and a few other ‘blemishes’ along the center of the canvas. The subject’s ability to be easily recognized can classify this piece as both figurative and representational. It represents a woman and figuratively determines on its interpretation. The meaning put behind it …show more content…
Similar to color in formal elements of art, contrast is cohesive in terms of principles. Contrast is basically something that resembles a strong difference; black and white. Tarbell manipulates contrast to bring out different parts of the subject. Angela has dark hair, dark eyes, and dark lips with a white contrast to show depth and glare. Darker areas generally are focused on first which provides a focal point. In photography, there are several composition guidelines to draw the reader to the subject of the work. Angela, although not a photograph, fills the frame prohibit the eyes from wondering far from the subject. The mark frames the subject’s eyes, submitting them to be the main focus of the portrait. Since eyes are primarily a small element of the face making scale an important factor to portraits and the focal point. Angela is a fairly large canvas being forty inches by sixty inches. The eyes were almost half a foot to a foot in diameter, so it can be assumed it is difficult to