This piece is called "I'll Be a Monkey's Uncle" by Kara Walker. It was created in 1996. It's lithograph on paper and is 39 3/4 x 35 inches. It depicts a seemingly young African-America female with unkempt hair wringing out a rag and a monkey in men's clothing reaching out towards her, its tail wrapped around it and pointing at the girl. The piece is in black and white.
The black and white coloring leaves for a very simple look of silhouettes.The composition is very symmetrical, and has each character on opposite sides of the paper. In stance of the monkey seems threatening to the girl, and the monkey seems to be pointing towards her with both its tail and hands.
It feels like this piece is supposed to represent racism. Firstly with the name, it shows how white people had closely related black people as monkeys.
The first thing I thought of for this project was to do eyes. I like drawing eyes, but I've never pained them before, so I had trouble working out how it would look, but it turned out pretty well. My concept was to do the progression of an eye closing. I focused on the main part of the picture so I'd consider myself done, but I would go back to add a background.
I was very excited to do this piece because I love watercolor paints. It was hard to find out what I wanted to paint, so I looked up landscapes as references, and I found inspiration in a beautiful picture of some trees. From there, I tried painting trees for the first time and I'm pleased with the result. It's not completed.
