A modern depiction of modern society

                  Brooks’ piece titled Apple represents a view of modern society or at least how the society’s mindset are headed. The piece is book and magazine page torn into small pieces and applied to matte board with mosh posh.

 

                  The work is made out of pieces black and white pieces of paper except the center apple is made from red paper. The upper back ground is made from recycled book paper from his earlier practice papers. The lower back ground is made from pages from the Webster’s seventh new collegiate dictionary for its dense wordage and then dyed darker with watered down Japanese ink. The hair of the two figure on either side of the apple are made from black strips of paper. The figure on the right’s hair is made from a magazine advertisement for cameras to give the hair the needed highlights. The figure on the left’s hair was torn into angled strips to represent the length of the hair.

 

                  Brooks’ uses implied lines to direct the viewer to the apple between the two figures. The implied lines are the lines of the figures themselves by pointing toward the apple. The bow of the figures arms draw your eye from the bottom of the artwork back to the center. The top left and right corners of the art work are empty of value change due to the use of the same type of paper but it doesn’t feel empty though with the different direction the pages were placed to give the space a feeling of motion. The upper background space doesn’t have the same weight as the lower background that represents the shadow of the two figures. The lower darker back ground feels heavier and less interesting sense the words are harder to read from the ink dying and smaller print.

 

                  In this piece, the light source is not seen. However, the light source is the slight upper left of the figures because how the highlights and shadows are shown. The shadows of the right figure’s arm holding the apple falls across his right shoulder. Brooks uses lighter pieces of paper to represent the highlights across the figures and apple. The shadows and highlights make the figures stand out from the background.

 

                  Brooks’ use of black and white creates unity and the use of the color red creates variety. His use of shades and values of black and white create unity in the artwork. However, the use of the color red creates variety and a point of interest.

 

                  The position of the figures creates a sense of desire. By having the figures standing apart from each other only touching though the apple creates a sense of tension between the two figures. Were if they could move they would embrace.

 

                  Brooks’ use of black and white gives the artwork a classic modern look instead of the traditional natural tones and hues. The black and white gives the artwork a classic feel like it was from a past time period before colored film while the subject matter is (for the wrong reasons is) modern for the new century. The use of the color red of the apple gives the viewer a focal point which has more than one meaning. The apple is the object connecting the two figures while the color red represents energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, love and is a very emotionally intense color.