My favorite piece of artwork from The Studio Fine Art Gallery in Brooklyn.

My first art gallery experience was very different than I had expected. Upon entering the Studio Fine Art Gallery near my house in Brooklyn I was immediately struck by how small and cluttered the space was. There were paintings from ceiling to floor organized in no specific order. At first, it was very overwhelming. I found myself having trouble focusing on specific paintings. However, after my initial confusion came a very comfy and homey feeling. I felt like all the art was hugging me in a sense. I started looking at individual paintings and noticing their beauty. While I couldn’t find names of paintings or identify the names of the artists, and the attendant was no help, I found a particular style of painting very striking  and I assume all the paintings in the gallery with this style were painted by the same artist. My favorite painting in the gallery was painted with this style that had a very creepy and eerie feeling. Most of the painting is comprised of little circle heads with blank lifelike eyes and a small mouth. The painting is almost split into two parts. The left side of the painting has a bunch of these small heads stacked on top of each other from the bottom of the canvas up, each head a varying shade of red. At almost the top of the canvas the heads stop and are covered by a white fedora hat. The hat has a faded red ribbon lining the part of the hat where one places their head and a faded red feather coming out of the ribbon. The right side of the painting is different. The bottom of the painting has about two rows of the creepy heads in green. Until about the middle of the painting there is just a green background. In the middle right of the painting is a box of varying shades of yellow creepy heads and on top of it is yellow top hat. Needless to say, this painting gives a spine-chilling feeling, which has to do in part of the gallery its placed in. The clutter I found it in and the smallness of the gallery contributed to the mysteriousness of the painting. All in all, it’s a painting I will never forget.

After my experience at the art gallery I headed to to the Coney Art Walls to enjoy their famous public art. The walls have a very hipster vibe to them and as a result I was expecting to see art that was cool and edgy. My expectations were verified as soon as I arrived. Unfortunately, the actual area where most of the public art is, was closed because of a labor day event that took place a couple of days before. Fortunately however, there were some pieces of public art outside the gated area that caught my eye.

The piece that struck me the most was a spooky interpretation of everyones favorite childhood characters: Dipsy the Teletubby, Ronald McDonald, Mickey Mouse, and Barney the Dinosaur. The four characters are arranged like an advertisement for a circus sideshow, each on their own but all together.  Instead of his normal face and body, Dipsy, the green teletubby, has an x-ray of his mouth instead of his normal face. The normal white square on his stomach is replaced with an x-ray of his heart. At the bottom bottom of this section there’s a thin banner that reads “Otto Topsy.” Connecting Dipsy and the sinister representation of Ronald McDonald is an orange badge-like circle that says “Alive” in bright red bubble letters. Ronald McDonald is portrayed as petite and chubby with a huge grinning mouth. Ronald has very large noticeable gums and equally big  teeth which are black and white in contrast to the bright yellow and red ensemble that we all know too well. Under McDonald is a banner that says “Grinnin’ Mac.” The next character is Mickey Mouse, who has his hands raised in the air in an exciting way. His face has some black graffiti lines on it which look like scars. Mickey’s mouth is opened to a huge smile which, like Ronald McDonald, has an overly sized gums with smaller teeth. Again, his gums and teeth are black and white as opposed to the classic red Mickey Mouse outfit. Under Mickey is a banner (although quite hidden in the picture because of the police line) that says “Grinnin’ Mouse.” Connecting Mickey with the last character, Barney, is a badge identical to the last one besides for the fact that it has a green background and purple words. Next is a side profile of Barney the dinosaur. His mouth, similar to the other characters, is wide open with  huge x-ray like black and white gums and teeth in contrast to the purple and green coloring of the dinosaur. The banner on the bottom reads, “B-rex.” This piece of public art is in the perfect place for its intended audience and intended perception. It’s in a cool and edgy area which causes viewers to look at it not as something disturbing, but rather as something thought provoking. The fact that this piece of public art is at the Coney Art Walls adds to the statement the artist is trying to make.