Ramses' assigned home work

Research                                                Elliot Fenton, 23/04/2012

The digital art collage I am going to study is “The Bawdy House on Petticoat Lane”. It was made by an artist from Cleveland, Ohio, a woman by the name of Tina Vance Bell.

I like the darkness of the piece, as it is visually striking while staying fairly dark and obscure; at first glance I thought it was a just standard building on grass. But after looking at it more thoroughly, I think it looks like the building is based upon (or supposed to be) a torso, or more specifically, a female torso. I enjoy this piece because it is very mysterious in that it could be confusing to the untrained eye. This is partly due to the fact that its structure is not the focal point, in my opinion. I was more focused on the overall look of the piece and not specific features.

I believe this piece is part of a bigger picture. However, on its own, it seems to me like the woman’s torso being a building, to me it seems like a school exclusively for girls (named the Bawdy House – although that doesn’t tell me much) because the people in the image are predominantly female. Because of this, I believe the image is trying to tell a story about these girls being made in the image of a woman that is no longer alive (no longer as the torso seems to be missing some vital parts...) by this school. Whether this is good or bad is not clear, but based on the overall darker tone, I’d imagine it is bad.

Although it doesn’t particularly look like it, this is in actual fact a digital collage. The images would have been taken and placed such that they tell the story and look as if this is a natural painting, and with a dark, grainy gradient placed over the top.