A Rhetorical Analysis Essay On Fish

In order to start the analysis the first step is to question what makes up the composition. In the composition, a pregnant woman with long dark brown curly hair is standing in pink sheer lingerie, white underwear, white above the ankle socks, and house slippers. She is standing on a cliff in rocky terrain, overlooking many houses diagonally angled and countering each other, full green trees, and a sunrise where the sun is breaking through the clouds making the sky pastel, pink, blue, purple and hints of a warm golden yellow. She is looking up at grey squared off fish above her face whom is swimming toward a whole sea/school of fish that look similar to the fish at the very top of the composition.

In this composition there are many implied

lines to help guide the eye through the scene. It begins with the angled rock that is creating a line horizontally from the right of the rock to the left towards the woman, then moves you to look up the woman’s body to her gaze at the fish above her. The implied line is created with her face and eyes. It moves from her gaze to the fish’s head swimming toward the school at the top of the composition. Although you look closer at the fish, its tail is creating an implied line down at the sky, the houses, and her pregnant belly. Once the eyes move down to her shoes you will notice that the right foot is at a slight angle that points back to the angled rock that kicks off the whole adventure.
From the implied lines, we must focus on if the lines and shapes are organic or inorganic.

These lines and shapes are mainly organic apart from the roofs on the houses in the middle of the composition. Due to these shapes being mostly in the middle or the bottom of the composition it creates an asymmetrical balance to the composition. Which means it doesn’t necessarily need to have symmetry in order to feel balanced. Because the fish and the woman are the main focal point in it does give a feeling of being balanced because everything else lies around them either at the very top or bottom of the digital piece. With this piece having human figures, animals, trees and nature, it would be considered representational. All of the elements are clearly identifiable, even the clouds are detailed enough to feel like they are close to

you.
Much of Gannis’s work has the same whimsical feel when it comes to her iconography. Through her other pieces you can tell she loves working with the idea of strange art in her digital work. The work usually has at least one person or more, includes nature like trees, plays around with the idea of family, and a little bit of a quasi-dark twist. Just the same with her other workings this piece is a narrative under a collection called “Everything That Rises Must Converge.” To fully understand this work you have to know and understand the symbolism and the two symbols that stand out to me are the fish and the sunrise. Sunrises are the start of a new fresh day while fish symbolize fertility, birth, rebirth, independence, and even change. The woman standing in the composition could be starting a new life and a new journey with her soon to be baby and seems hopeful of good things to come.
The coloring in her work is pretty amazing to say the least. She uses an array of hues such as pinks, blues, purples, green, gray, white, brown, black and pops of reds and yellows. She uses dark greens to contrast against the pastel pink and yellow sky and even uses the same concept to show that she is pregnant with the frilly lingerie laying over her belly and cutting into the middle of the composition into the houses. The color palette she uses is mainly complementary colors, especially when it comes to the pinks, blues, and purples in the sky and the houses containing red, blue, and green down below. The work contains both warm and cool colors and does a great job of not overdoing it on either side so the piece looks balanced and neutral when it comes to coloring.
Since this art is a digital creation the art is two-dimensional but she does create and illusion of dimensional space by creating the woman at an angle and defocusing the houses in front of her.

The artist also used shadowing in order to create depth within the rocks, the shadow in front of her and the edges of the fish swimming up. Gannis also used highlights and shadowing within the clouds using white and contrasting colors such as the purples and blues against the pinks and yellows to make them appear three dimensional and extra fluffy, very much like cotton candy. The main way she used the illusion of dimensional space is by blurring out the background and only keeping a focus on herself, the fish, and where she is standing. She also uses a lot of texture to imply depth as well as implying texture. It can be detailed as the extra strokes within the hair to make it look fluffier and with more bounce, the rocks are layered and broken down to show it has been there for a while and maybe a mountain side. The artist even uses highlights and shading to exaggerate the scales on the fish to imply the fish was in fact real. Gannis uses whites and pinks on her back to not only sheer out the nighty, but mixes it with other coloring in order to show the dress is flowing off of her and into the direction that the wind is

pushing.
There are three main focal points in this work, the first one being her looking at the fish, then it moves to her tummy because of her pointed breasts, and the concentrated rock contrasting against the blurred housing. She has a great advantage of getting such details in her piece because she uses a digital medium and because of the digital advantage she can manipulate it any way she wants. Another perk a digital medium is you can create art anywhere with the right tools and always be able to go back and fix something that is not liked. One can use different programs to create texture that can me mimicked though technology and thus may be an easier way to create art and getting it out to the public.
I at first reacted negatively to this painting because I did not at first understand it at first glance. Who really would when it comes to a pregnant woman watching a fish swim in the sky at the break of dawn on a cliff? Only through a thorough art analysis was I able to come and understand the composition just a bit more. Maybe even enough to like the piece itself. Caral Gannis used soft pastels and whimsical images to cast me in and I will be sure to look more at her work as well as others. Next time I will remember to thoroughly analyze a piece of art before casting judgment because no one should judge a book by its cover.