Art is such an interesting thing. The creator can have a purpose for drawing, painting, or choreographing a piece to relay or reveal something, but the audience could interpret it in a completely different way. You never know how someone may interpret your art work, but you always know they are taking something away from it.
While I was at the Oklahoma City Museum, I came across a painting I fell in love with titled “The Lava Flows” by Thomas Moran. As I looked more and more at the picture, I began to wonder about it. I ended up researching Thomas Moran for a paper, and come to find out this painting is one of the only ones he has ever done that didn’t involve trees, mountains, and lots of color!
Yeah, this painting was only in black and white, of rocks and something white that you couldn’t quite figure out. What I love about the painting is that there is no wonder. No people to judge the scene, no animals to help the spectator decide if it was a scary or beautiful scene. He left the interpretation to the observer, but you didn’t have to do much interpretation.
This painting doesn’t hide anything from its viewers. The viewers get exactly what they are looking at. They do not have to guess what the people in the painting are doing, because there are no people in the painting. However, everyone can interpret the painting differently. Some may see rocks and a lot of white paint. Others see devastation. Sometimes people forget how devastating lava can be as it creates ash everywhere and destruction for miles beyond repair. Many just see the red lava flowing down a mountain. Not Thomas Moran. The dark colors add a calm atmosphere, in comparison to a red that could create a more hectic feel. It’s like the calm after the storm only because he didn’t add intense colors. He kept a small color hue to allow for interpretation.
I believe that Moran chose to paint this after experiencing a volcano himself and for the pure strange natural beauty. As devastating as it is, lava and volcanic eruptions are a true natural beauty. This painting may be dark and eerie with the devastation it possesses. However, while looking at this painting, one can find a sense of peace and wonder. The dark color pallet and specific use of greys don’t evoke terror, but rather a sense of calmness and relaxation. Without any other color, the sense of wonder comes in because there’s still so much one doesn’t know.
Maybe you didn't get the same interpretation as I did from the piece. But that is what is so awesome about art and how you interpret it. There's a power to interpretation that can decide how you look at things, your attitude towards it, and what you tell people about it. Everyone has their own opinions, just like everyone has their own interpretations.
man running in forestPhoto by 
