Palmer Museum of Art: Life Size

Title: Life Size

Artist: Ida Lorentzen

Year: 1994

Materials Used: Oil on Canvas

             As I walked through the Palmer Museum of Art on campus, there were many intriguing pieces of art that caught my attention.  However, the piece of art “Life Size” caught my attention the most.  Why? Well first of all, if you walked close enough to the canvas, you feel as if you are in the picture because it is so big.  But this isn’t why I was intrigued by this mysterious canvas.  I was intrigued because at first glance, it looks like a room with an opened door looking out to a landscape of a mountain.  As I looked deeper into the canvas, reflections were everywhere.  After reading the description, everything made sense.  The furniture that Ida Lorentzen depicts in this painting is from her original home.  What I thought was a door, was actually a mirror reflecting the background of the landscape behind you.  This was a way for Ida to cope with her mother’s death.

               Considering the background of Life Size, there is a very strong emotional appeal Ida uses to engage the viewer. The dark colors around the outside of the objects made me feel very curious. Black is a color typically used in a negative light or show mourning for a death.  The walls of the painting were black but still had hints of pink within them.  The pink almost glows throughout the whole piece.  Ida further portrays the mourning of her lost mother with the black stool on one side of the table. The dark, maple, wooden table adds warmth to the piece so it isn’t so hostile.  Another observation I made was that all of the focus of this painting is in the center which has very light colors: pink and white benches, the mirror and door.  The mountain landscape Ida chose to be within the mirror creates a relaxing mood.  The white window frames glow through the mirror, giving the reader almost a heavenly feel.  Ida also has the stools reflecting in off the mirror.   By using all of these elements for emotional appeal, Ida demonstrates how on the outside she feels dark and saddened; however, on the inside, when she is reflecting back on her mother, she feels enriched and happy.

               Ida also uses strong logical appeal to contribute to her repeated theme of reflections.  Reflections are found all throughout the piece and demonstrate how this is a reflection of her emotional state of being.  Just as the mirror is a view from behind, Ida also looked back on her life with her mother.  Under the table, there seems to be another mirror that is reflecting the table and the stools.  Also, the door is casting a shadow of the straight, clear edges of the stools possibly representing that the image of her mother is still clear in her mind. 

Ida uses more than just reflections for her logical appeal.  For example, under the table there is a rectangular object that partially covers underneath the table.  This shows that Ida is still covering or hiding some of her feelings.  The stools add dynamic because only one stool is usable, yet the other side of the table has two stools stacked on top of each other. Because the dark stool is still usable, I believe that the dark stool represents Ida.  This logically makes sense considering the emotions that are portrayed by the dark stool and that she was still alive when she painted this so she could still sit in the stool.  The other side of the table has a white stool stacked on top of the pink stool.  I believe that this corresponds to her mother; the pink resembles her mother’s life and white resembles her mother’s after death, possibly heaven.  The touches of pink everywhere logically fit together because if the pink resembles her mother’s life and the pink glows everywhere, then the message Ida wants to get across is that even though she feels very dark and saddened, her mother’s life still shines through her.

               Ida doesn’t have much ethos in her painting but, in my opinion, I don’t think it is necessary.  Ida painted this piece because she was coping with her mother’s loss.  Her emotions seem to be so strong toward this subject that she painted true to her feelings.  Expressing emotions, in my opinion, is as true and honest as someone can be.  Through her emotions, Ida adds to the credibility of her piece.  Although the main source of her credibility is her emotions, Ida still added her initials, IL, on the bottom corner of the door.

               As my first time being in the Palmer Museum of Art, I had a great experience.  I don’t typically enjoy going to museums because I always thought they were boring.  However, now that I know how to analyze the rhetorical situation of something, I see everything so much differently.  I can see myself bringing my family there to show them the wonderful pieces of art.