Pawel Kuczynski Essay

Pawel Kuczynski is an artist who makes satirical illustrations about world issues. This particular painting, which has no title, appears to be about privilege and the difference between first and third world countries. Kuczynski creates this message with vibrant colors and different textures, along with people. Right away a fat man can be seen bathing in a tree full of water. Below him is what appears to be a skinny child. The child is looking down at his hands with barely any water cupped in them. Although the colors in the picture are very basic, they convey a strong message. The sky is bright red fading into orange, showing us that it is most likely scorching. The man in the tree is a similar red color, so we can assume he has probably been sitting there a while and is sun burnt. Kuczynski used orange and dark yellow for the ground, which shows there are no plants other than the single tree, and it appears to be a desert. The colors of the ground show this

Another way we can tell this takes place in a dry setting is by the texture he used for the ground. It is spotted and speckled and resembles sand. His texture for the tree is quite interesting because it looks like it’s fluffy, as opposed to being covered in leaves. This could suggest that the tree is not real and the man bathing in it had created it for his own pleasure. The bright red sky in the background is smooth and clear, with no clouds. As most people know, clouds come from evaporated water, so no clouds most likely means no water. The only water in sight is the water in which the man is in. The water that the man is bathing in is unusually still and smooth, another clue suggesting he’s been in there for a while. Water becomes still when it is undisturbed for a long period of time. The texture helps us infer what could be going on in this situation and where it is