Sandra K. Friday
Art rendering
Song of the Talking
Wire
by Henry Farny
Objective: To use the rubric from
Confrontation at the Bridge
to render this painting in order to reinforce the technique and give students the opportunity to apply and assess their art rendering skills. Again, using graphic organizers, students will
analyze, interpret,
connect with
, and
critique
Henry Farny’s painting. They will determine how and to what extent the painting represents the
invisible
, and
perhaps dispossessed
,
in American society.
Using their graphic organizers, students will
analyze
this painting, working from a slide, first listing on the left side of the organizer
objects
they see, such as a buffalo skull, two horses, one with dead deer slung over its back, moccasins on the feet of the lone Native American, a rifle cradled in his arm They can work as a class or with partners or by themselves. On the left side of the next graphic organizer, they will record
colors
and hues they see in the painting, such as the snow that actually looks pale orange or almost pink, reflecting the sunset; the dark brown or black color of what look like telephone poles that march across the landscape. On the third graphic organizer on the left side, they will describe the
composition or flow
of the painting. For example, the telephone poles, more or less, cut the prairie and the painting in half vertically and recede into the background for as far as the eye can see. The horizon where the snow covered prairie and the sky meet, cut the painting in half horizontally. The Native American, leaning against the foremost pole, is balanced by two horses, one bearing dead deer on its back. The sun is setting in the western sky.
Students will use the same three graphic organizers to
interpret
what Farny may have intended in representing the Native American in his painting. Next to the buffalo skull on the first graphic organizer listing objects, students will write what they think that skull might symbolize or represent. They will do that for each object they listed. Again, depending on the skills and dynamics of the class, students may choose to work alone, with a partner or as a whole class. The teacher will determine how that will work best. Students will need to know that the poles are not telephone poles but rather telegraph poles, hence the title of the 1904 painting. They will also need to know that some Native Americans believed that the wires conveyed
spirit voices
and those endowed with special powers, such as medicine men, could hear these voices by putting their ear to the pole.
Once they have filled in the right side of the three graphic organizers, and compared their findings with the rest of the class, there is a natural segue for them to
connect with
what the Native American might be feeling or whether the painting is optimistic or pessimistic and why. Perhaps the answer to this depends upon the perspective of the viewer. After all, the telegraph poles certainly are symbols of modern technology and in that sense, of progress. They might brainstorm what emotions the painting with its sunset, buffalo skull, dead deer, and telegraph poles evoke. In connecting with the painting, students might think about when they have been and felt alone, in a rather barren landscape, metaphorically.
It is here that students might predict, if this painting were in a series on the Native American, what the next frame would be.
Finally, students will
critique
how effective Farny’s painting is, considering what he may have been trying to do. Again, students need to be made aware that nothing in a painting, not an object, or a color, or any aspect of the composition or flow, is coincidental. All is highly intentional. With this in mind and their graphic organizers in hand, students might brainstorm (1.) what they think Farny was trying to do, and (2.)how successful they think he was in representing the
invisible people
in American society. This should generate some kind of discussion.
Students could be asked to evaluate how well they think they did using the rubric and graphic organizers from
Confrontation at the Bridge
. They might be able to identify their strengths and where they think they need more work. They should be told that for their final project, they either will be recreating a piece of art, or creating their own art, that represents an invisible element: an individual, group or event, in American culture, and they will be using the
art rendering
rubric on this project.