Making Work Visible

I knew that when starting this piece, I wanted to capture and acknowledge two elements of these trying times, essential work and the solitude they face. Essential workers are often overlooked. This idea is represented through multiple factors in my piece, including attention to detail, an open composition, and color. I used details in other aspects of the painting to draw attention away from the worker; he is merely organic blocks of color; even the broom he holds and the trash that accompanies him have more detail. I then further this through his scale in the composition, he’s a small fraction of the picture, but is arguably the most important or valuable. Through color he blends in with the mute atmosphere, besides his yellow t-shirt and gloves, which at a first glance are often mistaken as part of the yellow seen in the store front. Furthermore, I communicate the idea of solitude through a very cold and linear atmosphere (that being the structure of this area and most areas in Manhattan), the brick wall that boxes him in, and the simple fact that there is not another soul to be found. He is in fact seen as just another “brick in that wall”, a metaphor for the vast workforce of this country. They make a solid foundation for many other things. Essential workers that essentially are overlooked.