Francis - Artist Response

Since I was unable to go to any of the lectures, I went to the DePaul Art Museum to look for a work of art that included both image and text and found the above piece for my artist response. This piece is called Summer of Dreams and Magic and was created by David Leggett, who creates works of art that focuses on cultural and personal relationships, history, pop culture, and identity. While creating his works, he makes sure his position is not clear so that the viewer can decide for him- or herself. In addition, he adds humor to his pieces to “bring the viewer in for closer examination.”

When staring at this piece at the museum, I did not really know what I was looking at and still do not to this day. To me, it is just a bunch of random images with a few words of text. However, I started thinking more into the piece and the phrase “folk art.” When I think about folk art, I think of crazy colors, different types of confusing images, flowers, and something not aesthetically pleasing. In a way, I kind of relate it to if you were in a trance. After realizing that, I started to understand the piece better because everything I used to describe folk art was incorporated into the piece. Next, after reading the blurb about the work of art I found out that it was meant to be a free-associative work, which made a lot more sense. Even though I used free association to the phrase “folk art” without realizing, I then started to do it with the other images. For the old guy with the bulging brain, I thought of Dr. Frankenstein along with Einstein. For the alien, I thought of universe and uncertainty. For the naked girl, I thought of openness and a lack of privacy. It was really interesting to view the piece in that light because it opened the piece up to many possibilities and different ways of being viewed. As a result, I do not think there is a specific meaning to the piece of art, which I feel makes it even more successful.