What do you see going on in this work of art? Is there a story depicted?

The artist criticizes the stereotypical landscape paintings of the era of Western Expansion. Rather than paint an idealized picture of nature waiting to be colonized, the artist directly shows the resulting destruction when colonizers invade and steak Native American territory. This differs from other idealized Western depictions of the bright future of colonists who utilize the land for their selfish benefit to build new communities because the artist choose to show the perspective of how Native Americans would feel about their land being colonized. By making the image 3d the artist attracts the attention of the viewer to the acknowledge the physical display of environmental deterioration when colonizers invade the land and use it for their own purpose without regard to those who peacefully resided there and originally protected the land.

What different visual elements (ie: line, color, light, proportions, scale, composition, media type etc.) do you notice, and how do they help you make sense of the artwork?

Instead of showing the positive side to westward expansion which was being portrayed in other art pieces, the artist choose to convey grow industries would exploit land instead preserving the land which the predecessors of the native land would’ve done. The usage of 3D depicts the burning of the image and its deterioration which adds on to the message and theme that the author chooses. The artist also choose dull colors to depict a gloomy mood of the image.

What choices do you think the museum made about the object’s display?

The museum put the painting fragments underneath the actual painting itself as if to symbolize that the painting is still decaying away.

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