Simon Keene

Alyssa Toohey

ENG 170-09

Analytical Essay

30 January 2023

Purple Stream

In the artwork “Purple Stream” by an artist unknown, there is a dynamic that begs the question, is this art only beautiful when you see no flaws or is it beautiful despite its flaws? In life pretty pictures can be deceiving, from far you see the most beautiful piece of art, something without flaw, but what happens when you get closer? The closer we come to a “pretty picture”, the more we can see about said picture. When close we begin to see the flaws, the imperfections, and the stories behind them all. Now that we see these details should they perceive what we see, should we judge based off those minute and insignificant flaws or should we come to the realization that everything comes with its flaws naturally and we should welcome and accept those flaws because nothing in this world can be considered perfect.

Getting close, you can see all the brush strokes, the white with the purple coming together to create the appearance of a flowing stream in the moonlight and then cascading off into another scene of clouds. Along with the stream there is a mix of grey, white and reddish tones that come together to create this background of a moon view from a forest. There are dragon flies that sore from this background of what can be seen as clouds going towards the scene of the stream with the forest and moon. Around the background of the stream with the cascading waterfall there are speckles that border it and can be viewed as the stars in the scene with the clouds.

How one views something can be based on many things, however this painting appears to me as a picture within a picture. Through my eyes, the dragonflies are soaring through the night sky full of purple and reddish clouds to that stream in the twilight. The light is drawing them to a picture that is as pretty if not more beautiful than their own. “Why were they drawn there?”, you may ask, and the answer is simple. It’s because of those dazzling stars that enlighten this new image causing the dragonflies to see something different; they see a new picture, one that looks different than what they are used to seeing but is also so beautiful in its own way. Often in life we only see our own picture and we are so used to seeing our own picture even though we see one just as beautiful if not better right next to ours. But again, you wonder about this picture, you wonder about not what you can see but what you cannot see and that begs the question; would you still be drawn to that image if you knew what you could not see?

The painting “Purple Stream” conveys meaning through its display of details and colors, but this meaning is different for all who view it. At face value you see a cloudy sky with the image of a stream in the moonlight inside of it bordered by speckles of white that appear to be stars in the cloudy sky. You have dragonflies traveling from one sky into another along with a stream overflowing from into the sky. Through deeper thought and consideration, you can conclude that there is more to this pretty picture than just what we see from afar. When you get closer to this picture you see its details, good and bad, beautiful and not, and flaw and no flaw but regardless of that this picture is still a picture. Being defined by your shortcomings is not the luxury one should impose on another because those shortcomings could be the definitive characteristics of something. Being beautiful should not come with requirements or definitive characteristics, it should come with the natural feeling of wanting to embrace what you are no matter your appearance. Now I ask you, what do you let define you?