Beverly Buchanan, Ferry Road Shacks, 1988 Oil

 

At first glance, it looks cartoonish and childish, something a kid would draw for his parents or for art class, not a professional painting. When I looked at it at first, all I could think was who would pay for such a painting and who would hang this up in a gallery? However the longer I looked at the painting, the more and more it began to impact me. Firstly, I began to imagine the story behind the painting. For example, who lived in these shacks and what was the quality of life. I pictured a large family gathering around a small table crowded and cramped, but full of love. I also imagined the love and affection the family members felt and how living in such close quarters has brought them closer together. Also, I imagined how hard it must have been living there and how I struggle sharing a bedroom with my brother. The longer I looked at the photo, the more I noticed how each part of the painting serves a purpose in influencing your perception of the story behind it. For example, the color signifies the passion that people living in these “shacks” feel for each other and how the childish style of the painting signifies the innocence of the people living there. After doing some research, I found out that the painter of this painting was Beverly Buchanan. On her way home from a vacation, her parents made a wrong turn and got lost. There she saw what looked like shacks and thought about who lived there and what they grew up to be. Pleasantly surprised, she found out that many of the residents of these shacks turned out to be doctors, lawyers, and businessmen. When I did the research and found out that this was true, that extremely successful people grew up in shakes smaller than some rooms in some houses, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. However, the more I thought about it the more it made sense living so closely with so many family members, these people had so much support growing up. As you can see even though this image is amateurish and even childish, it has a dramatic impact on the person looking at it if they take the time to look closely and really think about what they are looking at.